Museo Il Viale dei Roveri

Among the oldest in Italy, with 87 monumental oaks and new dedicated paths that surround it to be admired as a precious treasure chest of biodiversity

Opened on 09/19/2013
An exemplary intervention of naturalistic protection and at the same time of tourist fruition and collaboration with private companies and research institutions.

La Mandria is a Natural Park characterized by a stupendous and unique integrated set of environmental and cultural assets, which at the same time makes it a natural site of community importance (SCI), and a cultural asset included in the UNESCO list with the Savoy Residences.

The Viale dei Roveri, which connects the main entrance of the Park with the Castello della Mandria, is among the oldest in Italy and its oaks have a very high naturalistic value: thanks to their large size and to their age they provide shelter and nourishment to thousands of species (mammals, birds, insects, fungi, mosses and lichens) and are therefore precious for the conservation of biodiversity. Some of the hosted organizations are at risk of extinction and are particularly protected at European level.

For these reasons the Park Authority, in preserving this precious environmental asset from abatement interventions, has implemented its "museum" with the simultaneous creation of functional new fruitful routes, specifically dedicated to pedestrians and cyclists, and only to authorized vehicles for reasons of service or residence to reach Borgo Castello. Therefore, instead of breaking down the 87 large plants of the Viale with drastic and continuous pruning, it will be possible to continue to admire them, at a safe distance and in peace.

The Organization Commissioner Roberto Rosso specifies "in La Mandria Park, even with the reduction of public financial resources, innovative solutions have been found to fully protect nature while improving the usable areas and the tourist value of the place: creating an "open-air museum."

This was possible thanks to the support given to the initiative, in addition to the Piedmont Region, by Magneti Marelli, which in turn allowed the involvement of the Polytechnic of Turin Department of Environmental Engineering of the Territory and Infrastructures for the conservation plan and reconstitution of the habitat (responsible for the research project Prof. Elena Comino), and of the Studio Planta (dr. Roberto Martinis and dr. Andrea Rettori) for the specific "anchorage" intervention of some oaks.

Fundamental was the work of the Park Authority offices and in particular of the technical-environmental one (dr. Claudio Masciavè and dr. Giusi Rezza), which for years has been managing every intervention on the enormous forest heritage of La Mandria Park and of the other protected areas under management, and the public works technical office (Daniela Cantatore and Claudia Casalegno) which designed and directed the works of the new dedicated road system, that in the coming months will be partly consolidated with a further draft of natural-like flooring.

Also the collaboration with the regional forestry teams, which for years have been taking care of the maintenance of the Park and which have directly realized the various furnishings present on the site was important: from the fences and boundaries, to the new bulletin boards (some still in preparation course). Soon you will see new rustic-style roads and young plants along the new pedestrian road to relax in the greenery of the vast Park, with about 30 kilometers of trails available to all and dozens of kilometers accessible with guided tours on foot, by carriage, in train, by bus and by September also by segway.