Alpe di Siusi

A high plateau of meadows above the Dolomite walls of the Schlern, the Alpe di Siusi is walking country on a heroic scale: wide panoramic trails, rustic chapels, legends of witches, and hamlets of larch-wood farms. In winter it trades boots for skis, joining the great Skiarea of the Val Gardena without ever losing its pastoral calm.

Why visit

Some mountains must be climbed; the Alpe di Siusi asks only that you walk across it. This is one of Europe’s largest high-altitude meadows, a broad green raft suspended above the villages of the Sciliar area and ringed by Dolomite peaks — the craggy Schlern (Sciliar) massif to the south, the flat crown of the Bullaccia (Puflatsch) to the west. Because the plateau itself is gently contoured, its landscapes open to everyone: prams, leisure walkers and expert hikers share the same panorama, and a network of trails links mountain inns where lunch is still farm cooking. The light here is famous — photographers arrive for dawn, when the first sun gilds the Schlern, and for the enrosadira of evening, when the Dolomite walls turn rose. In winter the same meadows become a Nordic and alpine ski landscape of unusual gentleness, and the plateau’s car-restricted access keeps both seasons quiet. It is a destination for slow itineraries: chairlift up, hut to hut, church to chapel, with the horizon doing all the work.

Character and history

The plateau belongs to the municipality of Castelrotto, and its culture is emphatically Ladin-tinged Tirolean: hay meadows mown by hand on the steepest plots, wooden huts with shingle roofs, and a folk calendar that includes the celebrated Kastelruther Spatzen music scene in the valley below. The plateau’s name recurs in legend — witches were said to dance on the Witches’ Benches, the wind-carved rock tables on the Bullaccia plateau, leaving their marks in stone. Grazing rights here were contested for centuries between noble and peasant communities, a dispute whose documentation reaches back to the Middle Ages, and the great summer transhumance, when cattle still climb to the high pastures, survives as living practice rather than folklore. Modern tourism arrived with the first lifts of the twentieth century but was shaped, decisively, by conservation: the Sciliar range was protected in South Tyrol’s oldest nature park, established in 1974, and the Dolomites’ UNESCO World Heritage listing now covers the rock walls that frame the meadows. The result is a working agrarian landscape that doubles as a managed outdoor resort — a balance the plateau guards carefully.

What to see

Most visitors rise by cable car or lift to Compatsch, the plateau’s hub at the head of the access road, where the meadows open in one uninterrupted sweep and the St. Francis Church (Compatsch) — a modern building shaped like a dove, clad in larch and porphyry — stands against the skyline. From here the Alpe di Siusi Panoramic Trail, a gentle and largely barrier-free path, threads the slope with the Schlern always in view. Westwards, lift-served Bullaccia Round Trail (Puflatsch loop) circles the flat summit with its rock formations and legends, while high above Saltria the Zallinger Chapel sits above 2,000 metres amid a scatter of mountain hotels. Down in the hamlet of Santa Caterina, the small Saint Catherine Church anchors one of the oldest pastoral settlements on the plateau. Southwards, the meadows run into the protected landscapes of the Schlern-Rosengarten Nature Park — in Siusi allo Sciliar, the Schlern-Rosengarten Nature Park Visitor Centre explains the geology of the reef Dolomite and the park’s flora and fauna through animated telescopes and interactive stations, with free admission. Hikers bound for the ridges take the Frederick Augustus Trail from Saltria towards the Plattkofel, named for a Saxon king, and geology-minded walkers follow the Geologists’ Nature Trail, which reads the plateau’s volcanic and reef history in the rocks underfoot.

How to experience

Give the plateau at least one full day on foot and, if you can, a second for the loop in the opposite direction — the light changes everything. Start early from Siusi or Castelrotto, ride the first lift, and walk hut to hut: the day’s rhythm is a morning stretch, a long farm-lunch at a schwaige, and a slow return with the Schlern turning gold. In summer, join a guided theme walk from the nature park visitor centre, or simply follow the numbered trails — the plateau is signposted like a garden. In winter, the same lifts serve gentle ski slopes and a celebrated network of cross-country tracks; sleigh rides replace bicycles. Carry sun protection: at 1,800–2,000 metres the air is thin and the light fierce even when the valley is grey. Afterwards, descend to Castelrotto for the village’s famous church bells and a Tirolean dinner.

Practical planning

The plateau is reached via Castelrotto and Siusi, Fiè allo Sciliar or Tires; the cable car from Siusi and the lifts from Fiè run in both summer and winter seasons, and most of the plateau is car-free during the day, with buses linking the lift stations — driving up mid-season is generally restricted, so plan to park below. Accommodation spreads among Castelrotto, Siusi, Fiè and the plateau hotels themselves; booking ahead matters in February and August. Days are cool at altitude even in summer — pack layers and rain gear. Lift operating calendars and trail conditions vary by season and weather, so verify times and closures shortly before travelling.

Nearby places

Castelrotto is the plateau’s gateway village; Bolzano and Bressanone supply cities for a rainy day; the climbing lanes of Ortisei, Selva di Val Gardena and Santa Cristina lie just over the shoulder of the mountain, with Alta Badia beyond the passes.