Seiser Alm (Alpe di Siusi)

Interesting facts

The Schlern's sharp silhouette above the Alm is such a South Tyrolean emblem that it appears as the logo pressed into Loacker wafer biscuits.

The medieval poet and diplomat Oswald von Wolkenstein mentioned the Seiser Alm in one of his songs, written in the first quarter of the 15th century.

The community's grazing and mowing rules for the shared pasture were written down in 1593, recording customs remembered by the commune and its elders.

Until 1934 the plateau could only be reached on foot; that summer a cable car from Ortisei in Val Gardena opened and visitor numbers soon rose sharply.

The first ski lift on the Alm, opened in January 1938, was a sled lift that hauled skiers up to a small hut called Joch.

The Schlern's pointed north-western pinnacle is called the Santner Spitze after Johann Santner, who made its first ascent in July 1880.

The Giro d'Italia has finished a road stage on the Seiser Alm only once, in 2009, when Russian rider Denis Menchov won the climb.

In 2016 the Giro returned for an uphill time trial from Kastelruth to the plateau, which has also hosted World Cup races in natural-track luge.

In Ladin, the old Romance language of the neighbouring valleys, the plateau is called Mont Sëuc.

The full panorama from the meadows takes in more than a dozen mountain groups, from the Puez-Odle peaks in the north to the pale Vajolet Towers in the south.

Why it is worth it

The Seiser Alm, called Alpe di Siusi in Italian, is a vast rolling meadow lifted high into the Dolomites of South Tyrol. Covering about 52 square kilometres at elevations between roughly 1,680 and 2,350 metres, it is regarded as the largest high-alpine pasture in Europe, and the sense of space is what strikes first: soft green swells dotted with wooden hay barns and huts, ringed by some of the most dramatic rock walls in the Alps.

The mountains around it are the real frame. To the south-west rises the Schlern, whose unmistakable profile is one of the best known silhouettes of the Dolomites; to the east stands the Langkofel group, and further away the Sella group, the Rosengarten and the glacier of the Marmolada. The contrast between gentle meadow and vertical rock is what makes the view unforgettable. Since 1975 the eastern part of the Alm has been protected within the Schlern nature park.

This is a working landscape, and an old one. People were already grazing cattle in the high forests in the Bronze Age, and in Roman times a mule path climbed to the plateau. Today the pasture is divided into countless plots where farmers still cut hay or graze animals, which is why the scattered barns exist at all and why the meadows look so manicured. The main settlement on the plateau is Compatsch, while the villages of Seis and Kastelruth lie below on one side and Ortisei in Val Gardena on the north.

Getting there

The Seiser Alm rises above Seis am Schlern, about 19 km from Brixen (Bressanone) and roughly 26 km from Bolzano Airport (BZO). From Seis a gondola about 4 km long climbs some 800 metres to Compatsch in about 15 minutes. The access road from Seis is closed to private cars during the daytime, so most visitors arrive by the gondola.

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Seiser Alm (Alpe di Siusi)

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

Plan your visit

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