From the last glaciation to the present day
"Glaciers : Yesterday – Today – Tomorrow" is an exhibition that portrays a protagonist of our landscape in all its majesty, stateliness and beauty. The objective of Dr. Christine Levy-Rothenbuhler of Samedan’s Academia Engiadina, who conceived the exhibition, was to stimulate curiosity and interest for glaciers. She was aided in this endeavour by materials provided by Dr. Luca Bonardi of the University of Milan. By means of didactic tables and surprising objects that can be seen and touched the visitor is placed in close contact with the kingdom of the snows. The exhibition describes the climate changes currently in progress and explains how the present landscape was formed under a deep ice shield. Is a winter rich in precipitations able to counterbalance the effects of a very hot summer? Is an early melting of the snow in spring damaging for glaciers? Is a stormy summer worse than a dry one? The exhibition will answer these and other questions.

Climate changes and their consequences
An important part of the exhibition concerns climate changes. Temperature increases have varying effects on the various regions of the Earth. An evaluation of the impacts which have already affected our own area and a general overview regarding the future are therefore provided. Furthermore, on the basis of several models, estimates regarding the expected sizes of glaciers in the Bernina area in 2025, 2050, 2075, and 2100 are also put forward.

The Cavaglia Glacier Garden
A jewel of nature, known as the Glacier Garden, can be found a short distance away from the site of the exhibition. Thanks to the dedicated work of an Association bearing the same name it is possible to admire about twenty impressive giants’ pots formed by recurring glaciations over thousands of years.


A glacier dies. Like it, many others in the world have lost a third of their size over the last seventy years. A long agony destined to cause the disappearance of a world which, with its slow dripping, has given rise to a different one. Its drops fashioned the surrounding scenery. They shaped the alps and all the mountain chains of our planet. They created waterfalls and giants'pots and are the source of life providing us with our primary asset: WATER