A very important date for the Dolomites (and not only) is surely 26th june 2009 when, with an unanimous agreement of the 21 member nations of the UNESCO commission, nine regions of the Dolomites have been designated Natural World Heritage. Among the motivations of this important appointment we can read: “for their sublime beauty and uniqueness in its landscapes and for their geological and geomorphological features which are unequalled in the world”.
The area recognized by UNESCO covers 142.000 hectares of land, among which there are also the two natural parks of Val Badia, the Fanes-Senes-Braies and the Puez-Odle.
The name 'Dolomites' dates back to 1789, when a French scientist named Déodat Dolomieu, visiting the Tyrol, noted a particular rock. After some accurate researches this rock resulted to be a mineral unique in the world: the Dolomite. Since then, the Dolomites have become the destination of many researchers, alpinists and tourists.
The mountain scenery is characterized by attributes unique in the world, just like the articulated topography, the variety of vertical forms which seem to defy the gravity force, the contrast with the soft features of the bottom of the valley, the dizzying vertical development of the peaks, and the presence of prisms, cones and parallelepipeds; observing them, we could think about structures created by a human mind. In this regard, the famous architect Le Corbusier defined the Dolomites “the most beautiful natural architecture of the world”.