King Laurin’s Rose Garden

He was so in love with the young girl that, by casting a spell, he covered the mountain with a very beautiful layer of red roses (not by coincidence, in German, the Catinaccio is called “Rosengarten” [Rose Garden]). King Adige, however, did not sit on his hands and, together with his army, he marched towards King Laurin’s kingdom to free his daughter.

The king of dwarves was convinced that no-one would track him down because, thanks to his belt, he could become invisible, but he hadn’t considered one thing: every time he moved on that garden of roses, he trampled some of them. Therefore, the soldiers just had to follow the path of the trampled roses to reach and catch him and tear the magic belt off him

The poor king of dwarves had no option, but to surrender and give beautiful Similde back to her father. Before doing so though he put a terrible curse on the rose garden that had betrayed him. He said, “No human eye will be able to admire you, neither during the day nor at night.” Therefore, where there were once beautiful roses, only bare rocks remained.

King Laurin though had not considered sunset, which was neither day nor night. That is why, still today, when the sun sinks behind the mountains, we can still admire the garden of red roses that tinges the Dolomite peaks.