Where nature welcomes art and memory whispers among the trees
There’s a place, nestled in the enchanted woods of the Val di Non, where nature is not just a backdrop, it becomes a living canvas for art. A trail that gracefully winds through larch trees and the silence of a pine forest, inviting you to slow down, breathe, and marvel: this is Predaia Arte Natura, a loop trail accessible to everyone, blending art and landscape in a harmonious, profound embrace.
The path begins near the “Alla Torre” Park, just above the village of Coredo in the municipality of Predaia, in a woodland area known as Dossi, crisscrossed with small trails waiting to be explored.
Here, just steps from the trailhead, stands a powerful and evocative sculpture: "Le Streghe" (The Witches), carved by master sculptor Gianni Mascotti. The artwork draws from one of the most tragic episodes in this land’s history: the Anaunia Inquisition of the 17th century, when, right in Coredo, suspicion and superstition condemned seven women and three men to be burned alive in front of the sinister Palazzo Nero, accused of witchcraft.
The sculpture depicts three female figures - three "witches" from different generations - who silently recount the cycle of life and knowledge.
In the center, a young girl, arms raised to the sky, dances in the enchantment of discovery, magic, and hope. To her left, a mature woman, skilled and aware, adds ingredients to a cauldron as in an ancient, wise ritual.
Lastly, the elder-wise, stooped but solemn-stirs calmly, guardian of silent truths.
A dynamic, symbolic composition brimming with emotion, touching on universal themes: the energy of youth, the mature quest, and the wisdom only time can offer. These are the same elements found in the simple act of walking, step by step, through a forest that becomes a living story.
Leaving this first striking impression behind, the trail continues along the “Avenue of Dreams”, a poetic path linking the park to the Tavon and Coredo lakes-two serene mirrors of water nestled among meadows and fir trees, where the sky reflects in stillness and time seems to pause. This is also where you enter the true heart of Predaia Arte Natura.
The pine forest welcomes visitors with an intimate, almost mystical atmosphere. Between the trunks and sunbeams filtering through the canopy, one by one appear the wooden sculptures that enrich the trail year after year. These works are created during the International Wood Sculpture Symposium, held each August on the shores of Lake Coredo. During those days, the lakeside becomes an open-air creative studio, where artists from around the world work with chisels, saws, and passion, transforming raw larch trunks into expressive, symbolic, and spirited artworks.
Once completed, each sculpture is carefully placed along the trail-spaced apart, almost as if not to intrude upon each other, like islands of meaning in a green ocean. And this distance is no accident: it invites contemplation, slowness, and the time to truly observe-to hear the voice of the forest and the deeper one that resonates within each of us.
The trail is gentle and without steep inclines, making it suitable for families, children, curious hikers, and even people with limited mobility. But beyond physical accessibility, it is above all a journey of the soul-an invitation to free yourself from haste and noise, and let yourself be enveloped by the beauty of simple things: the scent of resin, the song of birds, the whisper of wind in the branches.
In an age where everything rushes by, where even experiences risk becoming hurried and shallow, Predaia Arte Natura offers a gentle antidote to speed-a place where art is not spectacle, but encounter; where nature is not background, but living presence; where time is not to be filled, but savored.
It’s the perfect place for those seeking genuine emotions, for those who love to hear stories whispered among the leaves, for those who wish to walk with no destination other than being moved by beauty. A small world suspended between sky and earth, between sculpture and silence, between memory and dream.
