Rocca Pietore
Rocca Pietore is a municipality in the province of Belluno that stretches out at the foot of the Marmolada, the highest mountain i...
Updated 12 July 2026 · Sources: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sottoguda · https://www.serraidisottoguda.it/territorio/ · https://borghipiubelliditalia.it/en/borgo/sottoguda/
The story
The story of Rocca Pietore
At the foot of the queen of the Dolomites
The Marmolada dominates the territory of Rocca Pietore with its rock face and its glacier, the most extensive in the entire Dolomite range and part of the Dolomites UNESCO World Heritage site. The side facing the municipality is the one served by the cable car that climbs from Malga Ciapela up to Punta Rocca, a short distance from the highest peak of the Dolomites, Punta Penia, which rises above three thousand metres. It is a high mountain landscape that has made the name of Rocca Pietore inseparable from that of the Marmolada itself.
The Serrai di Sottoguda
Between Sottoguda and Malga Ciapela opens the gorge of the Serrai, a canyon roughly two and a half kilometres long and five to twenty metres wide, carved into limestone rock by glacial erosion and the waters of the Pettorina stream. For centuries it was the only link between the two settlements, until the early 1960s. Badly hit by storm Vaia in 2018, the canyon underwent a long restoration project and reopened to the public in July 2024 with new footbridges allowing visitors to walk it safely between sheer rock walls.
Malga Ciapela and the Marmolada cable car
Malga Ciapela is the tourist hub from which the Marmolada cable car departs, climbing in several stages to Punta Rocca, above three thousand metres, offering a privileged vantage point over the Dolomites and, on clear days, the surrounding Alps. It is also the reference point for the local ski lifts, connected to the broader Dolomiti Superski circuit.
A Tyrolean history
The historic name of Rocca Pietore, Rukepraun or Roccabruna, appears in a document from 1290, when the territory was part of the medieval Tyrolean administrative system, organised around a local mint. From 1813 to 1866 the municipality belonged to the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia under Austrian rule, a legacy still reflected today in the Ladin and Alpine culture and traditions of this corner of the Belluno Dolomites.
Experiences not to miss
- Salire con la funivia da Malga Ciapela a Punta Rocca, sulla Marmolada
- Ride the cable car from Malga Ciapela up to Punta Rocca on the Marmolada
To see
What to see in Rocca Pietore
Routes · Trovido Route
