1998: 90 years at the XII Apostles hut (written by Roberto Bombarda)

This sommer is the 90th birthday of one of the beloved huts of Adamello-Brenta Natural Park and of the whole Trentino: the XII Apostles hut. It was built during 1907 and 1908 by the S.A.T. with the money of the brothers Carlo and Giuseppe Garbari. The hut was inaugurated at 17.00 o’clock, on the 20th August 1908.The building with its original cubic shape, lies in the southern part of the Brenta Group, at 2489 meters altitude, in a wonderful position on limestone rocks above the Nardis valley, facing the Care’ Alto and Presanella peaks, overhanging the green Rendena valley.
Upstream the beautiful peaks named Cima Tosa, Cima d’Ambiez, Cima d’Agola, included the Pratofiorito, Agola and XII Apostles ones. By the way, talking about apostles, the hut has named like that because it refers to a geographical phenomenon, the erosion of a part of some rocks situated southern of the XII Apostles pass, that faces the Sacco valley. This erosion has originated

The Hut in 1908

some figures that look like the apostles praying. From the pass this name has then been given to the peak, to the glacier and even to the hut. The time goes by but the hut is by everyone simply called “I Dodici”

(“The twelve”). The cubic shape was a typical architecture of the huts built in that period: in 1922 it was written on the SAT Yearbook that “The XII Apostles hut is strong and stable like a monolith”.
The hut was not often seen until the postwar years. In 1947 Bruno Detassis run the hut for a year, but then since 1948 the Salvaterra family has run it. Adolfo together with his parents Maria and Giuseppe bet on the development of mountaineering and tourism even at that altitude, in those silent places dominated only by the eagle fly. (Agola means eagle). The tourism was then increased by the opening of the cable railway of Doss del Sabion and by the roads till Movlina and Agola farms (before then it took about 5 hours to walk to the hut).
Soon the Salvaterra’s warm brought humanity to the isolated cube, giving a contribute to a spirit of solidarity that is always been a point of honour for the S.A.T. After Giuseppe’death, in 1959, Maria goes on running the hut. She was born in 1900 and was soon named “Grandmother of Brenta”: she was always helped by her children and then by her grandsons to continue to improve the building . She used to climb up to the hut until her last years, at about 90es. But the XII Apostles hut is very well-known and loved by every mountaineer also because in the nearby lies the prettiest and surely the unique mountain chapel: the chapel is engraved into the rocks of the XII Apostles peak and its windows drawn a big 10 meters high cross. The idea of building such a chapel came after a sad accident that happened at the end of July 1950: the death of three young mountaineer, Vittorio Conci, Giuseppe Fiorilla and Maria Rita Francaschini, slided into a crevasse on the Vedretta dei Camosci glacier. A fourth person survived: Mauretta Lumini.

Grand Mother Maria Marino Stenico Nella Salvaterra

The year after, an appropriate committee leaded by don Bruno Nicolini and hundreds of supporters, carried on the plan, dedicating it to the three young mountaineers and to everyone who died in the mountains of every part of the world.
At the beginning the chapel had to be built behind the hut, in a tent shape. But the fantasy of Leone Collini, surveyor, created this original work: a tunnel into the rock, 500 cubic meters to drill for the chapel and for the big gross. The firs dynamite charge, brought up on the back from the valley, exploded on July 1952.
At 11.30 o’clock, on 28th September the new chapel was inaugurated and consecrated.From then on, every last Sunday of July, a big row of mountaineers or simply passionately fond of mountains go up to be present at the ceremony, while the singers of the SOSAT CHOIR sing their songs that resounds in the whole Nardis valley. Every year some new tombstones are hanged up inside the chapel; they belong to the ones who didn’t come home from the mountain but are directly gone to the long rope to Heaven. For all these reasons “The Twelve” is a very unique hut: for the places, the memories, the sensations. Every going up is a kind of pilgrimage, useful to think about the limits of men towards the Nature. And if 1999 has brought us a renewed hut, surely that pays more attention to the environment and to the requests of the tourists, for those who have known it before will always remain the small cube. With Grandma Maria, Dolfo, Nella, Marco, Ermanno and the others who have worked in this “bonsai” hut, trying to make everyone feel like at home, giving them vegetable soup and advices. Happy birthday, “Twelve”. And thanks a lot, Salvaterra’s.
The pictures in this article has been taken from the book “XII Apostles, a hut, a chapel”, by A.Stenico and R. Bombarda, edited by Artigianelli.