Alberto María de Agostini

Father Alberto Maria de Agostini (2 November 1883 – 25 December 1960) born in Pollone, Piedmont was an Italian missionary of the Salesians of Don Bosco order as well as a passionate mountaineer, explorer, geographer, ethnographer, photographer and cinematographer.

De Agostini lived as a missionary in Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia, between Chile and Argentina, where he was the first person to reach several mountain peaks, glaciers and sea sounds; and discovered others, some named after him.

In January–February 1931 he, Egidio Feruglio, and the alpine mountain guides Croux and Bron, were the first to fully cross the Southern Patagonian Ice Field; they did it from Lago Viedma (Argentina) to the vicinity of Patagonian channels of the Pacific Ocean (Chile), and back.

He also sustained a long and deep relationship with the native people of Tierra de Fuego.

In addition he has left behind 22 books and written works in Italian, German and Spanish; a precious collection of several hundred photographs; and a documentary film; all of them on Patagonia and Tierra de Fuego and the Fuegian tribes.

He died in Turin on Christmas Day, 1960.

There is now an Alberto de Agostini National Park in the west part of Tierra del Fuego named after him.

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