The development of Val Gardena all began with the Ustaria dl Baga, now the Grödnerhof. In 1911, sculptor Ferdinand Perathoner (dl Baga) built a villa complete with workshop on one of the meadows of the Vidlonch farm and, just two years later, added a coffee house for aristocratic spa guests.

In the early 1920s, the Demetz-Bernardi family purchased the property and, in the years to follow, the neighbouring “Schattenheim.” The buildings were united, and, over the years, the modest guesthouse transformed to become the five-star Relais & Châteaux Hotel.

The Ortisei cable car was the first-ever cable car connection to the Alpe di Siusi. From 1935 onwards, its two wooden cabins transported 15 to 16 passengers up to the mountain in just 6 minutes. This cable car laid the ground stones for modern winter tourism, and was followed by further ski lifts on the Alpe di Siusi and on the slopes of Ronc and Vidalonch.

The cable car was expanded for the first time in 1968, while 1999 saw the construction of the gondola lift, capable of transporting 2,200 passengers per hour up to the Alpe di Siusi.

A stylised depiction of a double eagle in slip decoration, the sign of the cross and the year 1828 adorn a large glazed clay plate. More decorative elements are arranged in concentric circles. Ceramic utensils were typical for Tyrol, and this plate comes from Hof Rescion in Oltretorrente. 

This bed chamber was built onto the now-demolished Bierjun farmhouse in Überwasser in 1456 and only revealed its secret beneath ultraviolet light: drawings in red chalk of scenes ranging from the passion of Christ to the mounting of the bell in Pufels church tower, and a bear hunt. These red chalk drawings are a rare example of religious piety in a private rural context before 1500. One farm owner was provost of St. Leonhard's chapel in Pufels in the 17th century.

This perfectly formed chabazite crystal on volcanic rock comes from a cave called "Planruf", discovery site at "Pufler Loch" southwest of the hamlet of Bulla (Bula in Ladin). The mineral, named "Puflerit" after the hamlet, is a variety of stilbite with whitish-yellow, drop-like shapes, smooth and shiny on the outside, with a radiating pattern on the inside. 

The analcime crystals on the Alpe di Siusi plateau found in the pillow lavas are world famous. This layer of the Frommer Lahn, which descends from the Alpe di Siusi plateau towards Siusi allo Sciliar, boasts an enormous, pink and white analcime crystal set in apophyllite. The 66-cm-wide layer, found in a huge hollow in 1966, was too heavy to be carried in a rucksack, which explains why the collector, Alfons Moroder, needed help retrieving it. 

This remarkable 11-cm-wide geode with quartz comes from the Dialer Bohlen area between the Sasso Piatto and Denti di Terra Rossa mountains. This area is famous for its geodes with varieties of quartz often featuring intensive colours. Geodes are formed when hot solutions and gases in hollows contained in pillow lavas crystalize to produce a variety of different minerals. 

This smooth, polished geode from Dialer is intact, filled with brightly coloured concentric agate rings, and is one of the finest specimens of its kind. Geodes occur only in pillow lavas, such as that formed 237-235 million of years ago on the Seiser Alm plateau due to undersea volcanic eruptions. Geodes may often be recovered by hand, while in other cases they require a pickaxe and crowbar.

The calcite crystals in this specimen from Molignon are mounted on glittering Dolomite crystals. Calcite on Dolomite is often formed during the solidification of sediment, particularly through the dolomitisation of limestone sediment. Magnesium-rich solutions replace the calcium in calcium carbonate with magnesium, giving rise to Dolomite rock. This type of rock has a smaller volume than limestone, leading to the formation of irregularly shaped cavities lined with Dolomite and calcite crystals. A famous example is the Molignon cavity with calcite crystals of up to 50 cm in length.

This two-part, 23-cm-high geode with smoky quartz, calcite and geothite was found in the partially rocky mountain pastures at Gardejea - Curasòa and is an impressive example of the minerals of volcanic origin found on the Seiser Alm plateau. This splendid geode dates back to a time between 237 and 235 million years ago, when lava streams full of bubbles coming from the earth's interior collected on sea beds.