Texelgruppe Nature Reserve

The foundation of nature park Texelgruppe goes back to the year 1970. A group of experts was commissioned by the provincial government to turn representative nature and cultural areas into nature parks. On the 21 October 1974, the group was ready. The first provincial commission for landscape protection decided on putting the nature park Texelgruppe under protection. The decisive factors were the unusual features of the area, which lent itself to being made into a nature park: a high mountain range with its bordering steep slopes and its original and unspoilt landscape. The goal was to protect this unique landscape and its many natural features and distinctive characteristics: above all the Spronser Seenplatte, the largest high alpine group of lakes in South Tyrol. It is situated amidst a magnificent high altitude landscape and as the “eye of the mountains”, they reflect this unique mountain scenery. And then there is the Pfossental valley with its many wild animals, lots of mountain streams and waterfalls that thunder down into the valleys. The Schneebergzug in the Passeiertal valley is also unique with its visible marble deposits, near which you can see beautiful and enormous garnet minerals. Mountain meadows and pastures – cultivated for centuries and rich in flora and fauna – are a witness to the careful exploration by the peasant population of this almost unspoilt high altitude landscape. This area was chosen in order to protect large stretches of landscape in the immediate neighbourhood of high population density regions and to keep them in their original state in order not just to protect the environment but also to cater for people’s need for rest in an ecologically sound way. With its 33,430 hectares, the Nature Park Texelgruppe is the largest of the seven nature parks in South Tyrol. A visit to this largely still untouched area promises natural beauty and original natural landscapes, as well as a farming-orientated cultural landscape which has evolved over centuries. An altitude difference of almost 3,000 meters enables us to witness here the whole plenitude of South Tyrol climate zones and habitats, from Mediterranean flora to the High Alpine zone. On numerous well-developed and ideally-marked rambling routes almost all of the vegetation levels from the vine to ice can be passed through.
Of water and of light – water comprises a fundamental basic element in the Nature Park Texelgruppe. It is visible not only as a glacier, spring, stream or lake, it also demonstrates its imposing power here in the forming and shaping of the landscape.