Giuliano Mauri's Cattedrale Vegetale

Giuliano Mauri was born in Lodi Vecchio on 11 January 1938 and died in Lodi on 29 May 2009. He was one of the Italian names in environmental art: with branches and trunks he built what he called “natural architectures”, works designed to decay over time and leave room for nature. He took part in the Venice Biennale in 1976.

His works include the Mulini, the Scala del Paradiso, the Bosco sull'isola at the springs of the Tormo, the Osservatori estimativi at Görlitz and Zgorzelec, on the border between Germany and Poland, and the Voliera per umani, an aviary for humans, in Monza Park, from 2006. His first Cattedrale vegetale dates from 2001, at Arte Sella in Trentino. The one at Oltre il Colle was built in 2010 as the first tribute to the artist after his death.

The idea of a “green cathedral” on the Arera is older than the work. In summer 2008 L'Eco di Bergamo reported the laying of the first stone, on 19 July, of a plant architecture on municipal land at Plassa, promoted by the president of the Orobie Park Franco Grassi and by the mayor Rosanna Manenti: for the time being three wooden arches with plants at their sides, the entrance to a project to be developed over time.

The final project is the one Mauri drew in 2008-2009. Construction, in 2010, took almost five months: the work was entrusted to the Consorzio forestale dell'Alto Serio of Gromo, the artistic direction to Paola Tognon and the building to the artist's son, Roberto Mauri, with a team of carpenters. The Cathedral was opened on Saturday 4 September 2010, together with the project to develop the Flower and Butterfly trails, as part of the Park's events for the International Year of Biodiversity.

The Cathedral is built with the old art of weaving, using flexible wood, stakes, nails and ropes, materials chosen to follow the natural cycle of growth and decay. Mauri had oriented it along the path of the sun and not towards the arriving visitor, the curator Paola Tognon explained at the opening, to make people enter it little by little rather than take it in at a glance. In 2019 the Park recalled that within 15-20 years the beeches were expected to reach 13 metres.

The figures for the work, as reported by L'Eco di Bergamo in 2010, are these:

At the end of October 2018 storm Vaia struck the Orobie with gusts of over 200 kilometres an hour. The sources give different dates, 28 October for L'Eco di Bergamo, Monday 29 for BergamoNews; either way about two thirds of the scaffolding was destroyed or badly damaged, and the ruined columns were removed for safety. The trees remained, some still with their column, others without support.

In December 2019 the council of the Orobie Park decided not to spend money on rebuilding the scaffolding: the Cathedral would go on growing with what was left, maintained together with the municipality, and signs would tell visitors its story, from its conception to the storm. The Park's president, Yvan Caccia, explained that growth would be less regular than planned, because the storm had simply brought forward what time would have done anyway.

In August 2023 Prima Bergamo counted 33 beeches out of 42 and quoted the mayor Ferruccio Ghilardi speaking to L'Eco di Bergamo: cleaning done, some trees already tall, the nine missing ones to be replanted in agreement with the Park. In June 2026 Valbrembanaweb wrote that, after some years of maintenance, the Cathedral has started growing again, although the soil is not very fertile for beeches, and announced a celebration organised by the municipality for Sunday 21 June, with pruning demonstrations, a concert and local products.

From Oltre il Colle drive up to Zambla Alta and continue on the road to Plassa, the place where hikes towards the Arera and the Capanna 2000 also start. You cannot stop on the road that climbs to the Cathedral: leave the car in the Plassa car parks. Higher up parking is paid, with tickets from the machine; Lorenzo Taccioli, in the account published on his blog in 2018 and updated in 2020, described the herringbone car park before the narrow section as free.

From the car park continue on foot along the tarmac road: two hairpin bends in about 500 metres, a quarter of an hour of fairly steep climbing according to the same account. After the second bend, on the left, a clearing with the Park's large sign marks the entrance, and a short path at the foot of the hillock leads in a minute to the Cathedral. Next to it are the Park's panels on the Cathedral, the Flower Trail and the Butterfly Trail.

You can also walk from Zorzone: the signpost beside the Cathedral shows path H33 to the Piani di Bracca in 30 minutes and to Zorzone in 1 hour 10 minutes.

Mauri's first Cattedrale vegetale dates from 2001, at Arte Sella in the Val di Sella, near Malga Costa: according to the official website of the Oltre il Colle Cathedral it is made of hornbeams and measures 82 by 15 metres, 12 metres high, over 1,230 square metres.

The third was built in Lodi, near the bridge over the Adda, under the artistic direction of his sons Roberto and Mauro, and opened in April 2017. Damaged by storms, it was completely dismantled in spring 2019.