The forest of Stradivari

29-04-2016

In eastern Trentino, in South Tirol department,  there is a natural park called Panaveggio. In it´s hundreds years old forests you find red spruce with special resonance wood, which was discovered already by famous Antonio Stradivari in 17th century. Thanks to the climate conditions of this altitude and also special composition of soil the trees grow with annual rings very close to each other and absolutely even.

The best sound has „Moon wood“. It comes from trees cut in a period when Moon is in the farthest phase from the Earth. The sap withdraws to the roots and wood is lighter and resonates better. In well preserved forest only trees with height around 45m, age between 150 and 200 years. The annual extraction doesn´t exceed 50m³ and that´s why the wood from this area is so rare and prized among luthiers. They wait for it for years, because demand all over the world highly exceeds the offer. There are only few places in the world where trees with such special features grow. Except the Val di Fiemme we can also name Tarvisio and Latemar. In Germany it would be well known area of Mittenwald or Zakopane in Poland.