Madonna di Campiglio Skipass

Madonna di Campiglio, located at 1550 meters above sea level in the beautiful basin between the Brenta Dolomites and the Adamello and Presanella glaciers, was launched for tourism in the second half of the last century by Giambattista Righi di Strembo. In 1868 he bought the entire substance of the former monastery of Santa Maria di Campiglio belonging to the chapter table of Trento for 40,000 florins. In place of the dilapidated buildings of the old hospice narrowed around a late medieval church, he built a first hotel, the Alpine Plant, intended to welcome the first tourists of the mountain. In 1875 he undertook at his own expense the construction of the road that connected the centers of the Alta Val Rendena with Madonna di Campiglio: it took three hours to travel by carriage. The entrepreneurial adventure of Gianbattista Righi was carried on by Franz Joseph Oesterreicher, former owner of the Grand Hotel Trento, who took over the property of Campiglio in 1882.

It was said that he was the illegitimate son of the emperor of Austria and Hungary who carried his own name, Francesco Giuseppe. He transformed Madonna di Campiglio into a highly sought-after place to stay for the nobility and the rich Austrian and Central European bourgeoisie. Among his guests, in 1889 and 1894, he even had the princess Sissi and the emperor Francesco Giuseppe who spent long days here walking through the woods, reaching the lakes around Campiglio and dedicating carefree evenings to waltzes and close encounters with their courtiers.

The Oesterreicher family remained in Campiglio until 1955, when its properties were gradually purchased mainly by Lombard entrepreneurs who transformed the appearance and structures of the locality. Already in 1947 the Madonna di Campiglio Cable Car Company was founded with the aim of enhancing the practice of skiing and therefore promoting the locality. In 1948 the first lift was inaugurated, a chairlift that connected Madonna di Campiglio to the Spinale; in the 1950s the 5 Laghi cable car and some ski lifts were built. Today the circuit of the lifts extends along 90 km of slopes with a capacity of over 30,700 people per hour and the connection with the slopes of Pinzolo is considered (the one, skis, with Folgarida and Marilleva being already active).

The 3-Tre, one of the most prestigious ski World Cup races, was born in 1948 from the imagination of Rolly Marchi as a trio of competitions (slalom, giant and free) and only in the following years divided between several locations. Madonna di Campiglio today is certainly number one among the Italian ski resorts and one of the most important in the entire Alpine Range: the variety of its mountain environment ensures in winter the possibility of skiing on countless kilometers of slopes up to 2600 meters, always different in degree of difficulty, for the exciting views of the groups of the Brenta Dolomites and Adamello and Presanella. Madonna di Campiglio, thanks to its 1550 meters of height, is the only one that ensures downhill skiing lovers can spend an intense day in the snow, starting from the town center and returning without taking off their skis. The charm of Madonna di Campiglio is not precluded to anyone: it is a charm that is revealed little by little, experiencing the silence of nature, immersing yourself in the glitter of snow crystals. The adventure begins by putting on cross-country skis or snowshoes – which here are called snowshoes – or by facing the satisfying challenge of an excursion with ski mountaineering.