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Parco Monte Barro |
The Protected Area |
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Identity Card
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The Park |
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Monte Barro Park, situated at the gates of Milan, is
characterized by an easily accessible natural environment concentrating
in a relatively limited surface with several interesting naturalistic,
historical, archaeological, and landscape aspects. Further info (Italian text) |
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Origins and Establishment Reasons |
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In order to safeguard Mt. Barro, in 1969 an intense debate began and
developed above all in the local and regional newspapers, and a
Committee promoting the safeguard of the mountain spontaneously formed.
In January 1974, Consorzio per la Salvaguardia del Monte Barro was created and with the Regional Law l.r.78/1983 the mountain became a Natural Park of Regione Lombardia. The Park also includes three nature reserves. |
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Geology |
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Mt. Barro is a calcareous-dolomitic mountain whose geology has drawn the attention of famous researchers, like Antonio Stoppani and Giuseppe Nageroni; in particular, Stoppani described the local rich Triassic fossil fauna in a well-known publication. The geomorphology of the mountain is linked both to the karstic environment and to the abundance of evidences regarding the Quaternary glaciations: glacial flows, moraines, and river-glacial deposits, erratic boulders; some of the latter present curious semi-spherical cavities. According to someone, these cavities have an artificial origin, that is given to the action of man who obtained from them some tools (for instance, mortars and presses) or structures linked to sacred rites; others suggest a natural origin, according to processes similar to the one forming the so-called potholes. Anyway, on Mt. Barro you can see some of the most impressive examples, such as the great "masso delle coppelle", a serpentine erratic boulder situated in the archaeological area, and "sasso della pila", situated at the top of the mountain. Further info (Italian text) |
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The Vegetable Biodiversity |
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Mt. Barro has naturalistic and scientific interesting aspects also for the remarkable diversity of its habitats, going from the beech tree woods and from the lime tree-maple woods of the northern valleys, to the open scrubs and the sub-Mediterranean woods dominated by Durmast and Pubescent Oak of the southern slopes, to the primary xeric and prealpine-Insubrian grasslands, to the karstic springs, to the calcareous cliffs in the various exposures. From all this, the presence of several floral species: as a matter of fact, Monte Barro Park is the protected area in Lombardy with the greater floristic diversity, with more than 1,000 plant species in less than 700 ha!. This great biodiversity is concentrated above all on the cliffs, in the dry grasslands, and in the Insubrian grasslands: in these environments, considered as environments of priority interest by the European Union, there are up to 50 species in one square meter; moreover, in many cases, they are vegetable species at the limit of their survival possibilities, since you can find at modest altitudes species usually living at higher altitudes, or they are species situated at the edges of their range; of particular significance the cases of Primula glaucescens, or of the whole complex of the endemic vegetations ascribed to Caricion austroalpinae, several characteristic species of which grow on Barro, at the western edge of their range of distribution. Further info (Italian text) |
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Fauna |
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The natural and semi-natural grasslands of Barro are also important
from a faunistic point of view: ongoing surveys are leading to the
identification of hundreds of invertebrate species (above all spiders
and insects, among which wonderful butterflies), many of which are new
for the fauna of Lombardy and, in some cases, of Italy. |
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