Strange House Embedded In Stone At 9,000 Feet Is Steeped In Mystery
Set 9,000 feet up in the Dolomites — a rugged mountain range in Italy — the strange little hut the Buffa di Perrero can only be reached by hiking a stomach-dropping mountain path. But for those who make it to this lonely house on top of the world, cozy chairs lay awaiting. There, adventurers take a load off, enjoy the view, and ponder the burning question: how on Earth did this house get here?
The enduring mystery
A house embedded thousand of feet up in a cliffside is wild in its own right. But recently, the architecture team from Studio Demogo had the crazy idea of building another one! Recognizing a real need for a functional shelter in the area, they erected a second mysterious mountain hut in 2021, but not without extreme difficulty. And if construction was tough in 2021, it must have been nearly impossible to build the first miracle mountain house, the Buffa di Perrero, several decades before.
How they did it
The new shelter — known as Bivouac Fanton — is nearly just as high up as the Buffa di Perrero. It sits along the Dolomites’ Marmarole trail at an incredible 8,750 feet up — just 250 feet shy of the old hut's altitude. And even with the benefit of 21st-century technology and building at a lower altitude, constructing the epic structure was a painstaking process.
Getting to the bottom of it
The Bivouac Fanton was designed to shelter weary hikers as they schlep along the challenging route to the region’s tallest peak. Yet it took not one, not two, but three attempts by helicopter to safely deliver building materials to the site. And it wasn't just height that threw the architecture team some major curveballs. The area itself was not so willing to cooperate...
Forecasting trouble
Bad weather is to blame for disrupting the plans to fly helicopters up to Bivouac Fanton. But waiting for better weather conditions was still probably faster than the alternative. Because even with using a ski lift to travel part of the way, it takes an experienced hiker — unburdened with building materials — five hours to walk to the shelter’s location. Now just think, during the time Buffa di Perrero was being built, helicopters weren't even an option.
