Inn Riki
We allow ourselves to say that the Braies Lake has one of the most famous and beautiful mountain landscape in the world.
A shiny, clear and intense blu lake, surrounded by the mountains, the massive rock walls of Croda del Becco, and thick fir forests.
A true gem set in the Dolomites.
The “Wildsee” is theather of many legends, some of them coming from protohistoric times. Braies Lake was in fact part of the reign of the Fanes (Rëgn de Fanes), a not so legendary matriarchal population that inhabited the Fanes Alp until the late Bronze Age.
Thanks to the fundamental work of a very determinated man and studious (Karl Felix Wolff), who transcribed the stories told and sung only orally until then, these legends have been saved as the epic Fanes saga.
They tell of myths, totemic animals, legendary creatures, wars, love, the cult of water, sun and mountain. And, of the sad end of their realm.
Right here, the legends says that still today the last survivors of the Fanes people, once a year on a full moon night, came out of a huge hole in the rocks and go around the lake by boat, guided by the queen Dalasilla and Lujanta, a mythical heroine.
That hole is still there, on the southern shore of the lake. For this reason, the mountain is also known as “Sass dla Porta” in Ladin, the local language, or “Torberg”: Gate Mountain.
Crossing this gate, would lead to the underground realm of the Fanes survivors.
We’re in Braies, situate in Val di Braies (Val Pusteria) in Northern Italy.
