Gran Paradiso National Park visitors centre - "Wolf space" and "Lynx Museum"
Resort: Valsavarenche
Summer 2024
from 1st to 18th July: every day from 2pm to 6pm (closed on Wednesdays)
from 19 July to 25 August: every day 9:00 - 13:00 / 14:00 - 18:00
from 26 August to 8 September: every day from 2pm to 6pm (closed on Wednesdays)
Winter 2024/2025
7 and 8 December: 2.00pm - 6.00pm
from 26 December to 6 January: 2.00pm - 6.00pm
Possibility of extraordinary openings, on reservation, for groups of over 15 people and with an additional price of 2 € on the access ticket.
Opening times are subject to variations: we advice to verify them on the web site reported in the “Contact” area.
Reduced entrance-fee: students aged up to 25 years (from 19 to 25 years with document certifying the student’s condition), persons accompanying disabled visitors, groups led by tour or nature guides.
Free entry: children aged up to 6 years, disabled visitors, people living in the municipalities of Fondation Grand Paradis (Aymavilles, Cogne, Introd, Rhêmes-Saint-Georges, Rhêmes-Notre-Dame, Valsavarenche, Villeneuve), tour or nature guides and Abbonamento Musei owners.
Reductions: Touring Club Italiano members and their families, persons accompanying Touring Club Junior’s members and owners of the access ticket to Parc Animalier d’Introd, Bard Fortress, Monte Bianco cable cars, M.A.V.
The visit is included in the Fondation Grand Paradis joint ticket (full price € 8.00, reduced entrance-fee € 4.00), valid for a year from the date of issue for visiting the sites run by the Fondation Grand Paradis.
Contact
The visitor centre for lovers of the oldest Park in Italy is situated in Dégioz, near the splendid parish church. A meeting point for tourists, the small information centre also houses areas dedicated to two animals who seem to be repopulating this land: the lynx and the wolf.
The Lynx Museum
“It is dusk in the forest. As always, the survival instinct drives the search for food. The lynx’s senses are on alert, leaves camouflage it as it lies in waiting…”
Predators are territorial animals, furtive and curious. It is often difficult to encounter them. Only five carnivorous predators are present in the Gran Paradiso park: from the smallest to the largest these are the weasel, the stoat, the stone marten, the pine marten and the fox. Large predators, such as the wolf and the lynx, often unjustly accused of damage to man or domestic animal, were killed off in the past.
The exhibition shows images of the Park collected by the Associazione Professionale Guide Parco Nazionale Gran Paradiso in association with the Fondation Grand Paradis.
The Wolf Space
Spazio Lupo is open to the public since August 2011 inside the Gran Paradiso National Park Visitor’s Centre at Valsavarenche. This documentation centre was created by the Gran Paradiso Foundation in collaboration with the Gran Paradiso National Park to gather and provide testimonials and documents about the presence of wolves in the Park.
This is a work in progress which will develop through time and to which visitors can offer their contributions and get more familiar with this predator which has once again begun living in North-western Italy and the valleys of the Gran Paradiso National Park.
The Spazio Lupo presents two wolves, interactive films featuring the presence of wolves in the Park, interviews and a selection of texts and websites where further information can be obtained. It is also possible to develop events for first-hand experiences and a special blog on the web.