History since 1934
The 90 years of the "Berni" refuge (1934-2024)

The works began on 15 July 1931 for the following reason: "that stretch of narrow and tortuous detour that motorists have to take to get to the "Gavia" is the reason why the majority of them give up going up it". (RM 1931)

So on 15 July 1931 work began on the project of partners and surveyor advisors. Guido Levi and surveyor. Remo Segala, coordinated by the tireless Umberto Cattina, inspector general of the refuges. The area of 40,000 square meters on which the refuge, the church and the war memorial stand today was generously ceded by the Municipality of Bormio.

The works were contracted to the Pietro Faustinelli fu Martino di Pezzo company, which employed twenty workers.



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In that summer of 1931 the work could not be completed because the funds were not sufficient so that it had to be limited to "the main framework, i.e. the wall part, the beams for the floors and the roof".

Bad weather had also occurred, so much so that on September 1st the workers left the refuge after an inclement season during which there were only 30 working days out of 45 and four snowfalls.



Greater luck over time occurred in the summer of 1932 during which the Berni Refuge was completed and was able to open its doors to the public already in the summer of 1933.

The refuge was dedicated to Captain Arnaldo Berni, from Mantua, who heroically fell in a war action on S. Matteo on 3 September 1918. In his memory, Father Comm. Archinto Berni gave generous help to the construction of the refuge and the Mantua CAI section offered the furnishing of the dining room. The cost of the building, excluding furnishings, was 48,000 lire, which can be discounted to approximately 50,000 euros.

The inauguration, on 30 July 1933, was a great celebration: it was estimated that over a thousand people attended, 150 cars were counted coming from many cities in Lombardy and beyond. Don Esti celebrated mass on the improvised altar in front of the refuge, recalling the events of the war and the figure of Captain Berni and his Monte Ortler Ski Battalion, of whom he was Chaplain.

From then to today the refuge has undergone numerous changes and improvements which have taken it from the initial capacity of 20 beds to the current one of 60.

A succession of different managements followed until 1959 until the reign of the Bonettas. First his father Giuseppe, one of the oldest mountain guides in the Ortles Cevedale, with a very respectable CV: he has climbed the Tresero 209 times and has a very deep knowledge of the entire Group; he was a friend of Captain Berni.

From the father, in 1967, the refuge passed to his son Mario, also a very expert mountain guide for the Group, who held it until 2009, marking the 50th anniversary of his reign. And now to daughter Elena with her husband Silvano and children to follow the path so honorably traced by her family.

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