The Winged Dragon of Vaia

The Dragon

The Winged Dragon of Magré, a district of the municipality of Lavarone, is the world’s largest wooden Dragon. Its construction required months of work, 3,000 screws and 2,000 pieces of wooden debris.

The Dragon, with its towering height of 6 metres and a length of 7 metres, seems to have flown straight out of some all-time classic fantasy film. The remarkable nature of this work of art is only enhanced by its impermanence: having been made from untreated wood, it is destined to gradually disappear as time, snow and wind take their toll on it. . A Dragon which, however, disappeared sooner than one may have expected.

It is now possible to visit the Dragon on the top of the Tablat where it sits. It can be reached from the district of Slaghenaufi by following the directions for the Chalet Tana Incantata, where you can leave your car before continuing on foot to the district of Magré, or taking the chairlift.

The artist behind this sculpture is Marco Martalar, sculptor who, created The Vaia Stag and followed with The Lagorai She-wolf in September 2022.

Storm Adrian (Vaia)

On 29 October 2018, a hurricane-force wind that reached speeds in excess of 200 km/h in Trentino left scars across our mountains. This extreme weather event, which originated in the Atlantic, flattened millions of trees, destroying tens of thousands of hectares of Alpine forest. In Europe, the storm was named after Vaia Jakobs, the manager of a multinational German company.

Her name has been immortalised in this way thanks to her brother Skouras, who had an original idea for a Christmas gift in 2017: he submitted her name to the Meteorology Institute at the University of Berlin to be assigned randomly to a specific event. A gesture of love which ultimately backfired: after all, the name Vaia stands for peace, not destruction, with the meaning of “palm leaves”, like those the crowd waved to welcome Jesus upon his return to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.

Marco

In 2020, Marco Martalar gathered up 1,500 pieces of broken branches and roots torn out by Vaia in Mezzaselva di Roana in the Sette Comuni, where he lives, and used them to create the Winged Lion of Vaia. At a height of 3 metres and a length of 4.5 metres, it is the largest Winged Lion in the world as well as a symbol of the courage and life force of the mountain dwellers.

Exactly one year later, Marco went to work again, this time in Magré on the Lavarone Plateau, to once more show support, solidarity and encouragement for another mountain undergoing the slow and difficult process of rebirth. The result is a masterful work of art, a symbol of resilience and courage. A symbol of fertility and protection from the most fearsome events: the Winged Dragon.

Lavarone Green Land

The Vaia Dragon is just the first step in a wider project undertaken by the Municipality of Lavarone to upgrade 4 themed trails: the Trail of Legends, with Avi, the Avez del Prinzep and the Vaia Dragon; the Trail of Springs, on the hunt for water; the Into the Woods Trail, with Avi the explorer and the animals; and the Breath of the Trees Trail. The project is intended above all to appeal to families who wish to nurture a love for nature, the land and the mountains through fairytales and legends.