Historická architektura

Magnificent buildings were created long the Passer Promenade, intended for the noble audiences of the Hapsburg Monarchy. The architect Martin Dulfer, who was 40 years old at the time, was able to build his first theater here, which became one of the most important representatives of the Baroque-style Art Nouveau; he followed this theater with three others. The theater in Merano was built in just fourteen months, under the supervision of Wilhelm Kürschner, who would later become Bolzano’s city architect. The iron construction of the stage area came from Munich, the stage equipment from Vienna and the seats from Berlin. Important details of the original structure have been changed, but the building remains one of South Tyrol’s few preserved Art Nouveau buildings. The theater’s clear plan is functionally divided into the stage area, auditorium, and foyer; it seats 500 spectators.

The Hospital Church of the Holy Spirit is one of Merano’s most important spiritual centers and art monuments. So it was deliberately a provocation towards the German-speaking religious population when the city’s fascist Italian-speaking government built its Casa del Fascio right next door, in order to obstruct the view of the historical church as you approach the old town. Even worse, the old hospital had to be demolished to make way for the new construction. Despite this architectural history, which is rather inglorious for the Italians, the building ranks among the masterpieces of Italian rationalism, architecturally speaking. The widely visible open tower, the horizontally layered facades, the bands of brick and loosened floor plan make this building one of the most interesting construction works of its time.

The square of Lasa/Laas, a village known for its marble, is fancily paved with white marble. In the same square stands a bust of Emperor Franz Josef, done likewise in white marble – and somewhat deserted, having been unclaimed due to the First World War. The traditional tavern situated here is a popular meeting point, and has developed into a popular event venue. The original character was unequivocally to be retained during conversion: wooden floors, brightly painted wooden paneling on the walls, circular benches, simple furniture of widely varying origin and a bar made of matte stainless steel all yield a mixture that seems random, yet was calculated in a sophisticated way in order to create a relaxed atmosphere. The centerpiece of the expansion is the vaulted medieval wine-storage area, which is now used as a restaurant and meeting facilities.

Built on the Passer Promenade, the old Kurhaus wellness center is the symbol of the city of Merano as a spa town and one of the finest multi-purpose buildings on the southern side of the Alps. Its rooms regularly house cultural and social events, conferences, exhibitions, celebrations and galas. The Kurhaus was built in the second half of the nineteenth century. The original part, the Pavillon des Fleurs, was inaugurated in 1874 and has existed practically unchanged to this day. The new wing, which included the Kursaal, a huge hall designed by Vienna Successionist architect Friedrich Ohmann, was inaugurated on 31 December 1914. The access at the Kurhaus is allowed only during events.

The square is surrounded by beautiful buildings of the Town Hall on the southern side (in neo-baroque style, with an interesting frescoes inside) and by Amonn House on the eastern side (facade decorated with stucco).

At the foot of Churburg Castle, the historical focal point of the village, an old farmhouse has been converted into a museum where the once-meager farming life of the Vinschgau Valley is documented − a lovely counterpoint to the feudal world of the castle. In the basement and on the first floor there are spaces for special exhibitions. In keeping with this use, the structure of both farm buildings has been retained and enhanced with typical regional materials. Larch wood, traditional exterior plaster, glass and steel were used so that its contemporary use is expressed through fittingly modern details. The existing load-bearing structure was combined with today's architectural components so that a homogeneous unit reflecting both tradition and modernity could arise, which shows much of the artistic potential of the Vinschgau people in a timeless way.

The Vinschgau Valley is one of the most arid areas in the Alpine region. Sunnaseit (sunny side) and Nörderseit (northern side) have always shaped the valley, the people, the culture.

Discover the versatility of this unique valley and its long history in the Vuseum - 's Vintschger Museum, and then hike the prehistoric settlement of Ganglegg or the old watercourses Leitenwaal and Berkwaal.

Enjoy the Venosta Valley ...

Interactive design, films, and the “Waal” hike along the ancient irrigation canals past the prehistoric settlement of Ganglegg make the visit really exiting.

... Experience the Venosta Valley

 The exhibitions make visitors understand why the Venosta Valley is the way it is today and how the people in the Venosta Valley learned to deal with the harsh conditions over the millennia.

Archeology

The Ganglegg site on the hill above Sluderno/Schluderns is the best-researched fortified hilltop settlement of the Bronze, Iron and Roman ages in the entire Alpine region. Valuable original structures have been preserved and also two houses rebuilt in this archaeological park.

The Rhaetian people at the Ganglegg occupied a position of social pre-eminence in prehistoric times, evidenced by the numerous jewellery and weapon finds from large parts of Europe. Their own writing, the place of burnt offerings as the centre of ritual ceremonies in the Venosta Valley made the people a powerful and widely feared tribe.

Swabian children

The Venosta Valley was a bitterly poor valley because of its climate. People had to starve and fight for survival every day. Facing a period of poverty between the 17th and early 20th century, many parents in the Vinschgau Valley were forced to send their children on a difficult an exhausting march to Upper Swabia to find a place to stay and work . The exhibition explores why it could come to this point and describes the hard everyday life of these "Swabian children".

Travellers – The Korrnr

It was not the desire for freedom that made them take the cart, it was poverty at home that forced them to do so. Pulling the cart, many people from the Venosta Valley travelled across the countryside. They bought and sold goods, hired themselves out as harvest workers or tried begging. Many a family was living on the streets for years.

WasserWosser – Water for irrigating the crops

Since the Venostaalley is one of the most arid valleys in Europe, the invention of a sophisticated system of artificial irrigation canals was essential for agriculture. Visit the exhibition WasserWosser and discover interesting facts about the origins, the history and organisation of this local irrigation system that has proven its value for thousands of years, and the way it was used.

Guided tours
Guided tours take place every Wednesday.
German guided tour - 16:00
Italian guided tour - 17:00

In 1250, Bishop Bruno of Brixen founded Bruneck Castle, which served as his summer residence. The town that evolved below the castle walls took on its name. After an eventful history, having been used as a prison and as a school, today the castle houses the fifth Messner Mountain Museum, which focuses on mountain peoples. The historical structure was carefully excavated and restored. The rooms, however, were not sufficient to house the museum and so a section is housed underground, in spaces that were once part of the fortification walls. Modern architectural forms were used for all the additions and new buildings, with concrete, steel, wood and glass having been used as materials. Only the parts that had to be provided as temporary extensions, for example the cashier areas and rooms for temporary exhibitions, were consciously done in wood and may be dismantled at any time.

Here, through information and fun, nature becomes perceptible, tangible and accessible. Here are available information on the Natural Parks of the Pusteria valley and the formation of the Dolomites UNESCO World Heritage. On the first floor you can visit the temporary exhibitions. Free admission!                         

The space in front of the Augustinian Monastery was used as a car park for a long time. Surrounded by buildings of historical value, the potential of the space was finally filled in with a new design. The complex is made of three parts: the entrance from outside, the square and the entrance to the abbey gate. The square was lowered by 1.5 meters in order to recreate the original proportions of the facades of the surrounding buildings. A steel plate for a fountain was installed in the middle of the space. Wooden steps arranged above the water cascade, surround the square, which can be used as seats for open-air events. In bad weather a large tarpaulin with steel supports and rope guy lines can be set up. All new aspects such as paving, parapets, steps etc. were made from granite to stay in keeping with the buildings of the abbey.

This wine bar is located on the ground floor of the Wipptaler Hof bed-and-breakfast, directly at the entrance to Sterzing’s New Town, just behind the Zwölferturm Tower. Here a spatial trisection can be found: The wine bar occupies the largest space, just behind the front door. It is characterized by an enormous table made of solid copper oak and seemingly endless shelves of the same material, which are filled with countless bottles of wine from a wide array of different places. Opposite there is a black steel fireplace, surrounded by cozy booths. All of the furniture is made of copper oak. A smaller room follows, with an old Stube parlor paneled in pine; then there is the kitchen, into which the guest can see. Snacks are prepared here to accompany the wine, which can be enjoyed at the outdoor tables in summer. A somewhat different, modern version of a traditional Weinstube.

Marienberg Abbey above Burgeis/ Burgusio dates back to the 12th Century. The highest located Benedictine abbey in Europe is situated at an altitude of 1,340 m a.s.l., since 900 years monks live here according to the rules of Saint Benedict of Nursia. Today, the main hall displays impressions about the daily life of the monks marked by Benedict's credo ora et labora. The exhibition displays also beautiful paintings such as the Romanesque Crypt frescoe with its unique depiction of angels.

Special exhibitions:

- Marienberg in front of and behind the lens
- Maria

Guided Tours
All information about guided tours and timetables can be found at https://www.marienberg.it/en/museum/guided-tours.html.

Earlier there was a natural bend in the river between the Bozen Gate and the bank of the river Passer, where sand collected, and the square laid out later in this area was named after it. Here, next to the Bozen Gate, is the building that used to be one of Meran´s oldest inns: the former Hotel Erzherzog Johann later renamed the Hotel Esplanade. Until 1913 the post office was located in the hotel. Nowadays the renovated Esplanade houses shops, offices and a café. Opposite you will see the "Ansitz Hohensaal2 an ancient noble residence that now accommodates the college of the "Englische Fraulein" and a neo-Romanesque church, the Herz Jesu Kirche (Church of the Sacred Heart). Currently it is difficult to see the square as it is in the process of being dug up in order to build a private underground car park. The Post bridge is the finest Art Nouveau bridge in Meran. The approach to the town from Bozen and the south was very important for the Meran merchants, and there were a number of different bridges here over the centuries, linking the Heiliggeistkirche/Spitalskirche (Church of the Holy Spirit/Hospital Church) with the town. The Art Nouveau bridge, renovated a few years ago, dates from 1909 and is the most elegant of Meran´s bridges.

The vintner took over his father's 1980s estate, and built a modern tasting space in the stolid old building. The simple insertion is a piece pulled out of the facade, a covered terrace, and can be opened with a retractable glass wall. The refined and ingenious design, perfect down to the last groove, is revealed only when one comes closer. It is completely white, uncompromising paired with the wine, which plays the starring role here. The white tasting table can be adjusted upwards, so that the wine can be tasted while standing, as if at a bar. The entire back wall area is used for projections. A specially designed lighting concept completes the presentation of wines to great effect. All of the service components required for the tastings are stored in a bar niche.

The horse racecourse in Maia Bassa/Untermais is one of the largest and most beautiful in Europe. It is very centrally located, but also divides the urban body sharply. In 1886, the first horserace took place for Merano’s aristocratic visitors. But the modern-day period began only in 1936, when the Fascist regime had the new racecourse built by the star architect of the day, Vietti Violi. With stepped staircases, flat roofs and clear design features, its plastered buildings are excellent examples of the Italian rationalist style, which was developed out of the classical modernism of the Bauhaus school. At two stories high, 150 meters long and 20 meters high, the main grandstand seats 15,000 spectators. After its renovation, the building received the 2011 South Tyrolean Architecture Award.

Situated in the park of the Baroque seminary, Cusanus Academy emerged as a widely acclaimed South Tyrolean pioneer project in postwar architecture. The three-story building closes the courtyard, urbanistically speaking, behind the historical seminary building with the church. It interpreted a theme of Bressanone’s Old Town in a contemporary way: arcades and bays run down the whole length of the eastern facade. The materials, exposed concrete and hard-burnt brick, consistently shape both the outer shell and the interiors with a quality that, even half a century later, shows no structural damage. In the center of the building is a large hall from which all the spaces on the upper floors are accessed via galleries. Because it has good acoustics the hall is often used as a large lecture room. It is vaulted and has a structurally interesting exposed concrete ceiling, the arches of which give the space good illumination.

The justice palace, built in 1939 on architect Paolo Rossi´s project, tower over financial buildings; the bas-relief it sports is of Hans Piffrader. At the centre of the square the Naiads Fountain of 1960.

"BZ '18–'45: one monument, one city, two dictatorships", is an exhibition opened to the public in July 2014. It illustrates the history of the Monument to Victory, designed by Marcello Piacentini and erected by the Fascist regime between 1926 and 1928. The monument reflects and provides a link to local historical events during the twenty years of Fascism and the Nazi occupation, within the context of national and international events in the years between the two World Wars (1918–1945). The exhibition also covers the radical urban transformations for the construction of a new “Italian” city of Bolzano, from the end of the 1920s. Finally, the exhibition confronts the difficult relationship between the different language groups, caused by the overbearing legacy of Fascism, within the evolving social and political framework of the second half of the twentieth century to the present day.

The sedate building on the village square, next to the church, is the headquarters of the winery, the barrel storage and technical rooms were extended into the space between the Gothic church tower and the old building. In order to save space, they decided on a wood-planked tower. Its wide, overhanging flat roof incorporates the first cornice of the church tower, just a few meters away, and the height of the old building’s eaves. The winery tower is thus well integrated. Because wood was chosen as the material and it has a similarly warm tone to the sandstone of the church tower, the two towers do not compete with one another. The strip of windows in the meeting space under the roof of the tower makes reference to the Gothic truss frame of the church tower. The barrel cellar is a structure with concrete supports, fitted with exposed bricks. Both the cellar and the stairwell are pervaded with artistically defined color schemes.

The Wandelhalle was originally erected in the 1860s, to provide sheltered seating for visitors. It was meant to provide shelter and thus to enable visitors to enjoy the sunshine and the mild local climate even in winter. The Wandelhalle quickly became a popular gathering spot and was enlarged in 1891. There are busts of distinguished citizens in the middle section or Ehrenhalle (hall of honour), while the side walls are adorned with landscape depictions by such stellar artists as Franz Lenhart, Rudolf Complojer and Peter Demetz.

It all began in 1871 with the construction of the railway line from Lienz to Fortezza, which was owned by the Südbahngesellschaft in Vienna. In 1878 the Grand Hotel in Toblach was opened, thus giving rise to tourism in South Tyrol. Dobbiaco and the Grand Hotel soon became a destination for illustrious guests, especially in summer. The Hotel Südbahn became a prestigious meeting place for prominent personalities and, thanks to continuous investment, the building was gradually expanded.

The development of the Grand Hotel in Toblach
During the First World War, the Grand Hotel suffered little damage and became a military hospital. At the end of the war the complex was totally abandoned. In 1934 the building was auctioned off and bought by the ‘Istituto di Credito Fondiario delle Tre Venezie’. Fortunately, Italy was experiencing a phase of commercial growth and Italian customers discovered Toblach as a charming place for Alpine summer tourism.

In the period following the world wars, the building housed various institutions and facilities, going through a new phase of life. In the 1990s, it underwent a major and costly renovation.

The Grand Hotel today
What for its time was a luxury hotel now houses a Culture and Congress Centers, youth hostel, first class restaurant, Nature Parks Visitor Centre, Music School, Youth Service, training centre and social flats. The centrepiece of the entire complex is the splendid ‘Gustav Mahler’ Auditorium, dedicated to the Bohemian composer of the same name: with a capacity of 460 seats and excellent acoustics, it represents the beating heart of cultural activity.  
Today, the Grand Hotel in Toblach is home to the Euregio Cultural Centre, which houses the impressive Gustav Mahler Hall and a Guesthouse. 

Trauttmansdorff was honored as Italy's Most Beautiful Garden in 2005. The complex comprises approximately 12 hectares of gardens, with about 5,800 species of plants and 80 different garden landscapes. The gardens are crossed by paths and waterways, and lined with pavilions. The castle – once the holiday residence of Empress Sissi – has been meticulously restored and complemented by a restaurant and visitor center. In addition to elegant stainless-steel details for bridges, railings and furniture, of particular note are the Aviary and the Viewing Platform. These two modern structures lend the gardens an architectural three-dimensionality. Both represent light yet bold architecture, made of stainless or galvanized steel, and seem to float over the gardens. Visitors access the Viewing Platform across steps that are virtually transparent. The platform towers above the treetops; meanwhile a dizzying bridge high above the gardens protrudes out of the aviary.

The Brixen Pharmacy Museum leads into the past of a Brixen townhouse with splendid wall panelling, murals and tiled stoves. The house containing the Peer Pharmacy holds a rich store of rare medicaments that relate the diversity and imagination of the healing art. This wonderful little museum is also highly recommended for all lovers of architecture and modern art.

Visiting the town of Certosa/Karthaus is like a journey into the past. The town was built inside the walls of the Cloister of Certosa degli Angeli, founded in 1326 and reopened in 1782. The Via Crucis of the ancient cloister is especially interesting.

Copper was once mined in the Aurina/Ahrntal Valley, and even today the tunnels can be visited and are used for the medicinal purpose of relieving asthma. The granary next to the church in Steinhaus has long served for the storage of food, with which the miners were partially remunerated. In 2000, it was rebuilt into a museum in order to exhibit the Enzenberg Collection comprising wood models, paintings, mine maps, documents and finds from the mines at Predoi/Prettau. In addition to a pavilion as foyer, which is made of a steel structure with stone slabs and connected with the exhibition rooms through a glass atrium, the renovation operation focused mainly on the central section of the elongated building structure. A wooden staircase, lift access, emergency stairs, and sanitary facilities were also installed here. The encased staircase represents a type of watershed between everyday life and the world of the museum.

To the south of Bolzano, on porphyry rock, a vast castle arrangement, by the way, one oldest is in South Tirol. On account of her impressive situation, it is - as it is due to her beauty - also far away obviously. History: Castle Sigmundskron was called in the first historical mentions about 945 "Formicaria". In 1027 the German emperor gave the dukedom of Trento as well as the county to Bolzano to the bishop of Trento. In this manner the building went over in his possession and was used from now on as a seat of the Amtsmänner responsible for this territory and, moreover, still for high court meetings. An enlargement of the castle in 12. and 13. Therefore, Jhd. became necessary. Very pleasantly for the rulers of the area was the control of the navigation on Eisack and Etsch. The only entrance of Bolzano to Eppan could be closed up to the construction of the first bridge about 1200 easily. About 1473 the castle went over in the possession of Sigmund to the coin empires, princes of Tyrol. The lover of nice castles allowed to develop the arrangement immediately. As his most splendid construction the duke called this "castle Sigmundskron". However, soon afterwards Sigmund gets in financial difficulties. He must pledge his work, the castle slowly goes to ruin, because it is also not inhabited any more constantly. 1957: The next important event which takes place within these walls is the national rally against "Verwelschungsbestrebungen" (lot of Trento), i.e. against the disregard of the "Paris contract" about 1957. In 1976 an innkeeper's family raised for the first time the courage to renovate partially the castle to open the guest company in these romantic surroundings of course also at the same time. In 2006 The „sacristan Mountain of museum of Firmian“ in the castle Sigmundskron/Firmian is opened. Architectural style: The castle is built mainly in the highly medieval style. The slender donjon in the untercastle shows Late-Gothic rebuildings. From the 13th century is the residential tower with round arch door as well as round arch windows. One recognises two gun turrets by the up to 5-m-thick curtain wall in the upper precastle, among the rest, moreover, you find a living - and economic building in the court (the place of the today's restaurant). Specific features: Highly - and untercastle are unambiguously separated by a rock formation, a natural barrier which one often does not find thus. Duke Sigmund made the castle by stonecutters decorate, it had to go nicest in his collection. The different dimensions of the loopholes also do not correspond to the norm of that time.