The Botanic Garden of the Eastern Alps is located on the Alpe del Nevegal, on Mount Faverghera. It covers an area of 6.25 hectares, and is located at an altitude of 1400 - 1600 m s.l.m.
The reserve is located on the western side of Mount Faverghera, in an area of the mountain horizon with limestone rocks strongly fractured cavernous, shaped in soft and round forms, belonging to the middle and upper Cretaceous. The area has an accentuated karst morphology with different typical manifestations: caves, karstic wells, dolines and furrows.
The Monte Faverghera Reserve, thanks to the variety of environments found there, allows a wide view of the various plant associations present along the arc of the Eastern Alps. There are in fact subalpine scrubland plants, swamps and alpine springs, turbid populations, pastures and alpine grasslands, scree and macerate, snowy valleys and cliffs. Within the individual associations, you can see the most important endemisms of the Eastern Alps: primula, saxifraga, androsaci, gentian, alpine stars and understand the delicate mechanisms and adaptations that allow their survival in the difficult alpine environment.
The fauna in the reserve also has many interesting aspects. In fact, although the Botanical Garden is for its vocation an instrument of interpretation of the complex environmental panorama of the Eastern Alps, it hosts a not negligible fauna typical of the transition horizon to twisted shrubs. Here they nest the Forkcock, the Blackbird, the Bigiarella, the Fanello, the Prispolone. The rocks host the Culbianco, the Red-haired chimney sweep, the White ballerina. There are also birds of prey, such as the kestrel, the buzzing owl and the black kite. Extraordinary is the presence of rare species, such as the Ermine and the Dwarf Owl. Favored by the presence of small ponds, there are also several amphibians.
The history of the Botanic Garden
In 1957, the naturalist Francesco Caldart had the idea of creating a small botanical garden on the pre-alpine ridge of Belluno, hoping that it would then develop to represent the spontaneous flora of the Alps and the Eastern Pre-Alps. Today the area is a natural reserve managed by the Carabinieri Biodiversity of Belluno.
