Centro visitatori del Parco Nazionale Gran Paradiso – Homo et Ibex (Ceresole Reale)

The Latin title says it plainly: man and ibex. Housed in the former Grand Hotel of Ceresole Reale, this is the park's museum of a single, defining relationship — the bond between mountain people and the ibex whose survival gave birth to the park. The Belle Époque hotel setting adds a second story: the age of arriving by coach.

Why it matters

The ibex is not just an emblem for this park; it is the reason the park exists. When the House of Savoy declared its grand hunting reserve in the nineteenth century, the strict protection it imposed on Capra ibex around the Gran Paradiso massif inadvertently saved the species from extinction across the Alps, and that reserve became Italy's first national park in 1922. A museum that narrates this long entanglement — hunting, myth, art, near-loss and recovery — is therefore telling the founding story of the entire protected area, not merely a local curiosity. Placing it in a Belle Époque hotel building adds a second narrative layer: the rise and decline of high-altitude tourism in the Orco valley.

What to notice

The exhibition moves through the ages of the human–ibex relationship rather than through taxonomic displays. Panels reconstruct the atmosphere of a cave decorated with prehistoric ibex drawings, and scenes of historic hunting are evoked through sets and figures. Everyday objects of mountain life, collections of photographs and paintings, and references to the myths and legends that accumulated around the animal fill out the picture. The exhibition follows the changing image of the ibex as prey, symbol and protected species. The building itself rewards attention: the scale and layout of the former Grand Hotel at the Prese hamlet recall the era when guests arrived by coach for the alpine season, long before the valley's identity shifted from resort to park gateway.

Context and history

The centre occupies the former Grand Hotel in the Prese locality of Ceresole Reale. It forms part of Gran Paradiso National Park's network of visitor centres, each devoted to a different aspect of the park and its communities. Its Latin name, Homo et Ibex, reflects the exhibition's long account of the relationship between people and ibex. Ceresole Reale sits on the Piedmontese slope of the massif, so the centre anchors the Piedmontese side of a story also associated with the Aosta Valley villages.