How big is the Paneveggio-Pale di San Martino Nature Park?

19,726 hectares in seven municipalities of Trentino, according to the park authority. 64 per cent lies in the municipality of Primiero San Martino di Castrozza, followed by Canal San Bovo with 14 per cent, Predazzo with 8, Moena with 6, Mezzano with 5, Imèr with 3 and Sagron Mis with a few hectares.

What is the highest summit in the park?

The Vezzana, 3,192 metres: it is the first the park authority lists among its main summits and the highest figure it publishes. Next come the Cimon della Pala at 3,184 metres, Cima Canali at 2,900 and the Sass Maor at 2,812. On the porphyry side the highest summit is Cima Cece, 2,754 metres, at the western edge of the park.

Can you drive to Baita Segantini?

Not in summer. The Passo Rolle-Baita Segantini stretch is closed to private vehicles round the clock: in 2026 the ban ran from 15 June to 15 September. During the closure non-scheduled public transport is allowed, that is taxis and chauffeur-driven hire cars, and rescue, warden, hut supply and accommodation-guest traffic remains exempt.

Where do you park for Val Venegia?

At Pian dei Casoni, where in 2026 parking cost 5 euros up to five hours and 7 euros for the day, or higher up at Malga Venegia, 10 euros a day. When the Malga Venegia car park is full, park staff close the road leading to it. Guests staying in a hut pay a single rate of 15 euros for up to five days. Overnight parking is banned in both areas.

Can you visit the park without a car?

In summer, yes. In 2026 the park authority ran, from 27 June to 6 September, the Fiera di Primiero-Paneveggio and Fiera di Primiero-Val Canali bus services and the free Paneveggio-Malga Venegia shuttle, with seven return runs a day. Timetables are published on the park website each summer.

Paneveggio-Pale di San Martino Park: facts and access

The Paneveggio-Pale di San Martino Nature Park covers 19,726 hectares in seven municipalities of Trentino, and 64 per cent of it lies in the single municipality of Primiero San Martino di Castrozza. The Autonomous Province of Trento created it in 1988 with provincial law 18, later replaced by provincial law 11 of 2007.

It holds two mountains that look nothing alike. To the east are the Pale di San Martino, pale dolomite, the largest group in the Dolomites according to the park authority, with a plateau lying between 2,500 and 2,700 metres. To the west are the porphyries of the Lagorai and Cima Bocche, dark volcanic rock fifty million years older. Between them, on the floor of the Travignolo valley, lies the Paneveggio forest.

Here you will find the figures, how it is built, what you see and above all how you get around: in this park the road closures and the paid car parks are decided by the park authority itself, and the rules change between June and September. The rules common to every Dolomite park are in our guide to the nature parks of the Dolomites.

Two mountains in one park

The eastern sector is dolomitic. The park authority describes the Trentino part of the Pale di San Martino, which it calls the largest mountain group in the Dolomites, about 240 square kilometres. The central plateau, partly inside the park, is roughly ten kilometres long and five wide and lies between 2,500 and 2,700 metres. Among the main summits the park lists the Vezzana, 3,192 metres, the Cimon della Pala, 3,184, Cima Canali, 2,900, and the Sass Maor, 2,812.

The western sector is volcanic. The Lagorai and the Cima Bocche massif are the last spurs of the Athesian porphyry platform, a succession of ignimbrites, lavas and epiclastic deposits laid down in the Permian, between 290 and 274 million years ago. The highest summit of that complex is Cima Cece, 2,754 metres, at the western edge of the park. A third group, Cima d'Arzon, is made of metamorphic rock.

The rock that holds the Pale together is the Schlern Formation: pale, massive dolomite laid down about 239 million years ago, with thicknesses approaching a thousand metres. It builds the Cimon della Pala, the Mulaz, the Vezzana and the whole plateau.

The forest that becomes violins

More than half of the park is woodland. The Paneveggio forest covers about 2,700 hectares and is 85 per cent Norway spruce, in the belt between 1,500 and 1,900 metres. This is where the resonance wood used for musical instruments comes from: the park authority writes that climate and landform let the spruce grow in optimal conditions.

Higher up, to about 2,200 metres, larch and Swiss stone pine appear. Silver fir is scarce and beech is missing altogether: like silver fir it prefers damper, warmer climates. In the most secluded areas there are stretches of old-growth forest that have never been cut.

In the Vanoi valley the Valsorda and Valzanca forests are mixed, with spruce, silver fir and beech together. There the relationship between people and woodland has its own route in the Vanoi ecomuseum, the Anello del Bosco, which passes the Valsorda log chute and the Siega de Valzanca, a water-powered sawmill of 1870 rebuilt by the park authority, where guided visits with a working demonstration are held in summer.

Water: three torrents, many tarns, two glaciers

There are three main catchments: Cismon, Vanoi and Travignolo, each with its own torrent. On the porphyry ridges either side of the Travignolo valley the Quaternary glaciations left great tilted slabs and a series of high tarns filling the erosion hollows: the Lusia lakes, Lago di Bocche, Juribrutto and Cavallazza.

The Colbricon tarns are the exception: they sit in hollows of structural rather than glacial origin. Larger are Lago Calaita and Lago di Forte Buso, a reservoir, and in Val Canali there is the small Welsperg lake, beside the park headquarters.

Two glaciers remain on the Pale di San Martino, the Fradusta and the Travignolo. The park authority keeps them under constant monitoring and calls them witnesses to the history of these mountains.

In summer the roads close: what changes and where

This is the rule that sets Paneveggio apart from the other Dolomite parks. Under article 45 of the park plan's implementing rules and article 6 of the regulation on motor access, the park authority closes three road sections to private traffic at the height of summer. In 2026 the ban ran from 15 June to 15 September, round the clock.

The three sections are these, and they are exactly the ones people want to drive:

The ban does not apply to rescue vehicles, wardens, public services, supply traffic for huts and alpine farms, guests of accommodation on arrival and departure, and vehicles carrying holders of a disability permit. On the Passo Rolle-Baita Segantini stretch, non-scheduled public transport is still allowed, that is taxis and chauffeur-driven hire cars.

Passo Rolle - Baita Segantini: closed to private vehicles, 24 hours a day
Sabbionade (Ritonda restaurant) - Piereni, in Val Canali: closed in both directions, with parking also banned on the public lay-bys
Sabbionade (Cant del Gal) - Malga Canali, end of the forest road: access restricted to the designated parking areas

Where to leave the car, and how to manage without

During the restricted period the park car parks are paid, with solar-powered meters, from 7 am to 5 pm, and parking overnight is forbidden. In 2026 the charges ran from 15 June to 15 September, plus a few weekends in September and October.

For Val Venegia you park at Pian dei Casoni, 5 euros up to five hours and 7 euros for the day, or higher up at Malga Venegia, 10 euros a day, where park staff close the Pian dei Casoni-Malga Venegia stretch once the upper car park is full. Guests staying in a hut pay a single rate of 15 euros for up to five days. In Val Canali the areas are split in two zones: in zone A the first half hour is free and then it runs from 3 euros an hour to 12 for the day, in zone B from 2 to 7 euros.

It can be done without a car, but only in summer. In 2026 the park authority ran, from 27 June to 6 September, the Fiera di Primiero-Paneveggio and Fiera di Primiero-Val Canali services and the free Paneveggio-Malga Venegia shuttle, with seven return runs a day. The park publishes the timetables each summer.

How the park came about, and the World Heritage Site

The park dates from 1988, created by the Autonomous Province of Trento with provincial law 18; since 2007 the governing law has been provincial law 11 on forest and mountain land, watercourses and protected areas. There are seven municipalities today because Tonadico, Siror, Transacqua and Fiera di Primiero merged into one, Primiero San Martino di Castrozza, which alone puts 12,630 hectares into the park.

Not all of the park is World Heritage, and the park authority says so precisely: a substantial portion of one of the nine areas that make up the site falls inside the park, namely System 3, the Pale di San Martino, San Lucano, Dolomiti Bellunesi and Vette Feltrine. The Lagorai and Cima Bocche, which are porphyry rather than dolomite, stay outside the inscription of 29 June 2009. The park is a supporting member of the Dolomites UNESCO Foundation, set up in 2010.

Human history is everywhere. Worked flints have been found on the shores of the Colbricon tarns; at Paneveggio stands a small church built between 1729 and 1731, burnt by Austrian soldiers in 1915 and rebuilt in 1926. Paneveggio, the park authority writes, remains an outpost for forestry work and tourism, not a place where people live.

Inside the park

Our pages that fall within the park’s mountain groups.

Hikes

E · Hiking

Trail · San Martino di Castrozza

Baita Segantini and Val Venegia: loop beneath the Pale di San Martino

3 h 30↑ 400 m10 km

To see

Sight · San Martino di Castrozza

Huts

2,170 m

Mountain hut · San Martino di Castrozza

Baita Segantini

day service only

Frequently asked questions

How big is the Paneveggio-Pale di San Martino Nature Park?: 19,726 hectares in seven municipalities of Trentino, according to the park authority. 64 per cent lies in the municipality of Primiero San Martino di Castrozza, followed by Canal San Bovo with 14 per cent, Predazzo with 8, Moena with 6, Mezzano with 5, Imèr with 3 and Sagron Mis with a few hectares.
When was the Paneveggio-Pale di San Martino park established?: In 1988, by the Autonomous Province of Trento, with provincial law no. 18; since 2007 the governing law has been provincial law no. 11 on forest and mountain land, watercourses and protected areas.
What is the highest summit in the park?: The Vezzana, 3,192 metres: it is the first the park authority lists among its main summits and the highest figure it publishes. Next come the Cimon della Pala at 3,184 metres, Cima Canali at 2,900 and the Sass Maor at 2,812. On the porphyry side the highest summit is Cima Cece, 2,754 metres, at the western edge of the park.
Can you drive to Baita Segantini?: Not in summer. The Passo Rolle-Baita Segantini stretch is closed to private vehicles round the clock: in 2026 the ban ran from 15 June to 15 September. During the closure non-scheduled public transport is allowed, that is taxis and chauffeur-driven hire cars, and rescue, warden, hut supply and accommodation-guest traffic remains exempt.
Where do you park for Val Venegia?: At Pian dei Casoni, where in 2026 parking cost 5 euros up to five hours and 7 euros for the day, or higher up at Malga Venegia, 10 euros a day. When the Malga Venegia car park is full, park staff close the road leading to it. Guests staying in a hut pay a single rate of 15 euros for up to five days. Overnight parking is banned in both areas.
Can you visit the park without a car?: In summer, yes. In 2026 the park authority ran, from 27 June to 6 September, the Fiera di Primiero-Paneveggio and Fiera di Primiero-Val Canali bus services and the free Paneveggio-Malga Venegia shuttle, with seven return runs a day. Timetables are published on the park website each summer.
Is the whole park a World Heritage Site?: No. The park authority writes that a substantial portion of one of the nine World Heritage areas falls inside the park, namely the Pale di San Martino, San Lucano, Dolomiti Bellunesi and Vette Feltrine system. The western sector, with the Lagorai and Cima Bocche, is porphyry and is not part of the inscription of 29 June 2009.