Gran Paradiso National Park Visitor Centre - Cogne
The Gran Paradiso National Park Visitor Centre in Cogne - TutelAttiva Laboratorio Parco - is a research laboratory where visitors can study and understand what happens in the park, deepen their knowledge on the environment and analyse the choices taken regarding the use and administration of the territory. The complicated and dynamic development of the Park is set up in a laboratory style, with explanatory models, multimedia systems and interactive games, various role games, and an original “sensorial space”, which allows visitors to appreciate the perfumes of nature and listen to the sounds of the woods.
The themes of the Visitors’ Centre of Cogne are: the Water, using models which show the effects of water on the territory, depicting floods and explaining the relationship between human settlements and hydrological factors; the Forest and Grazing Land, including a multimedia “full immersion” into a forester's life and realistic decision-making to protect the forest; Wildlife and Man, where interaction between humans and animals is discussed.
The center also houses two thematic displays: one dedicated to the wolf and one to the ibex. In these immersive stations, it's possible to admire taxidermied specimens and immerse oneself in the story of the characteristics of these species.
New for December 2021: Visitors will be able to listen to sounds of nature and alpine wildlife flow through... Their own bones! In the two new osteophony stations, acoustic vibrations are emitted that do not pass through the air, but rather solely through the body, starting from the elbows, along the arms and hands until they reach the ears of the visitor, who will thus be able to "hear" the sounds of glacier and avalanche, the howling of the wolf and the bramble of the deer, and many others among the most secret noises of our mountains.
The Visitor Centres of the Park in Cogne, Valsavarenche and Rhêmes are also designed as "Alpine Convention Information Point", where visitors can find information and documentation about the Alpine Convention. Read the Agreement memorandum between the Secretariat and Fondation Grand Paradis.
