Contacts
Giardino Alpino Paradisia
Address
Fraz. Valnontey, 44
11012 COGNE (AO)
Telephone
Web Site
Paradisia alpine botanical Garden
Resorts: Cogne
Summer 2024
1 - 30 June 10am - 5.30pm every day
1st July - 8 September 10am - 6.30pm every day (September 2 will not hold guided tours)
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 car, 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.
Contacts
Free guided tours are scheduled every day during the opening period: at 10.30am - 2.30pm - 4.30pm
Paradisia was founded in July 1955 and owes its name to the Paradise lily, Paradies Liliastrum, which dwells in the alpine meadows and pastures. At 1700 metres above sea level, Valnontey was chosen for it relatively moderate altitude, the conformation of its soil and its exposure, which reproduce various habitats, and for the magnificent backdrop of the Gran Paradiso. In 1964 the mountain biology station was set up near the gardens for research into the park’s flora and fauna. In 1971 the scientific unit was handed over to the park’s scientific studies commission. Work began on ecological reconstruction of the gardens, the herbarium of spontaneous flora and the seed bank.
Paradisia hosts more than a thousand vegetable varieties from European and worldwide mountains, that are of interest to tourists and scholars alike. The latter will also find a herbarium, a laboratory and a small library. In order to enhance the educational-scientific aspects, several natural environments have been recreated inside Paradisia with the vegetable combinations that characterise them (pseudo-steppe, peat bog, moraines, limestone debris, alder woods). Each of these is marked with an explanatory panel giving the main characteristics. Each specimen is labelled with its scientific and common names.
Botanical itineraries
Two itineraries take you through the Gardens. The first is marked black and goes through the central part of the park, characterised by rock gardens and the recreation of several environments, while the second, marked yellow, takes you through the outer areas of the gardens. Both itineraries can be followed with the help of a guidebook or audio recording.
Petrographic exhibition: collection of several rock samples typical of the Cogne valley and other areas of the park.
Lichen collection: grows spontaneously on 10 rocks in the garden.
Butterfly garden: along the trail, with the help of explanatory panels you can discover the wonderful world of these insects, which are drawn to the cultivated plants on which they feed.
See also
Note - this information is not directly connected to the Cammino Balteo path but it is part of the Aosta Valley tourist offer.