Maria Piaz: pioneer of tourism in Val di Fassa
The Dolomites are a mountain range lying in the eastern section of the northern Italian Alps. One of the best-known Dolomite passes, Pordoi, marks the boundary between Trentino Alto Adige and Veneto. It lies between the Sella group to the north and the Marmolada group to the south.
Pordoi pass 2.239 meters a.s.l.
The Sass Pordoi cable car departs from the mountain's base and takes visitors from the 2240 m valley station to the 2950 m of the one on top.This cable car turned 60 in 2023. It was imagined and created by Maria Piaz, who, at 80, had the idea of building it.
Maria Piaz was born in Val di Fassa (Trentino Alto Adige) in 1877 to a poor family. Her brother Tita, a famous mountain guide and rock climber, is still remembered with the nickname "devil of the Dolomites."
Tita Piaz, mountain guide and climber known as “The Devil of the Dolomites”
Maria Piaz grew up as a determined and rebellious girl and was sent to work on South Tyrolean farms. She ran away seven times! She joined an amateur dramatics company and reinvented herself as an actress. However, this activity is not very socially accepted for a woman, and what's more, it's forbidden by the church.
Her tenacity and extraordinary abilities led her to small but progressive entrepreneurial successes. She bound books and collected healing herbs to help her parents, to whom she is so devoted. Her mother, Caterina, and her father, Battista, married her off at 19 to an older man, Cristoforo Dezulian. They wanted to protect her from poverty.
Maria and Cristoforo had seven children, but this does not mean they remained together. Anticipating modern times, Maria Piaz separated from her husband due to character incompatibilities imposed on her by her family and poverty. The turning point came in 1902.
Maria on skis and at the door of her shack in 1903 with her husband Cristoforo and her son Francesco
Maria went to Pordoi Pass with her father to buy a pig. She fell in love with that natural amphitheatre surrounded by incredible mountains and asked her father to lend her money to rent a wooden shack. That's how she started a business. Thanks to her stubbornness, Maria succeeded in her aim, began her career as a hotelier, and became the tourism pioneer in Val di Fassa.
Maria Piaz was not afraid of a hard life. She endured hardship and fatigue, looking after her children and her business. She has never left her beloved Pordoi Pass, so everyone calls her "La Mare del Pordoi," which in Ladin means the Mother of Pordoi.
Later, Maria Piaz built four hotels in the area: Hotel Savoia (which was heavily damaged during WWI), Hotel Maria (which was finished in 1927), Hotel Col di Lana, and Hotel Pordoi, which still exists. These were all confiscated during the First World War to house the fighting troops and ended up entirely destroyed.
Hotel Savoia and Hotel Maria – Pordoi pass
When they grew up, her children also became entrepreneurs and built other hotels in the area's most strategic positions: Sella Pass, Pian Trevisan, and Canazei. Despite two world wars, one of which was fought in her mountains, she never got discouraged despite facing a tough test.
Maria with her sons Francesco and Erminio
She was also a person of great heart. During the First World War, Maria Piaz was imprisoned for helping some irredentists cross the border. A few months later, she was arrested and, from 1915 to 1918, also interned in the Katzenau concentration camp. This experience will mark her considerably and pain her deeply. She had to leave her children with acquaintances and endured hardships bordering on survival.
When she turned 80, she and her son Francesco had a great idea: to build a cable car that takes you from the Pordoi Pass to the top of the mountain. The project was not simple. Initially, a chairlift was planned. This option was abandoned as, in moments of strong wind, the seats could hit the rock. Thus, one of the first cable cars in the Dolomites was developed. Maria Piaz inaugurated it with great pride on Easter Day 1963.
First trip on the Sass Pordoi cable car in, autumn 1962, Fiorenzo Perathoner
