Historie a kultura Bolzana

The Dominican order established itself in Bolzano/Bozen in 1272 and built a church with a single nave inside a vast convent which branches off into different chapels, some of which have been lying in ruins, and a beautiful cloister. A part of the ancient structure houses the Music Academy shich, indidentally, Hosts the prestigious international piano competition Ferruccio Busoni. Also present is the Stadtgalerie, an art gallery which holds different exhibitions and other important cultural Events. The church has gothic archways, as well as baroque elements from the 17th and 18th century (such as the altar piece of Guercino to the left of the Major altar, which was bought by the merchants of Bolzano). The church preserves prestigious examples of paintings from Bolzano from the 14th century which can be found on the oriental side of the coister and on the western wall of the Church, but the real artistic jewel of the building is the Chapel of St. John, the Long and narrow side chapel which holds the cycle of frescoes of those painters who took Giotto es their role model, the so called "School of Giotto". Of particular interest are those scenes from the life of St. Nicholas on the last part of the oriental qall, and the fresco of the "Triumph over death " in the firs part of the same wall, the flight from Egypt on the western wall and the torture of St. Bartholomew on the northern wall. The entire chapel, decorated with individual frescoes of various themes, is a splendid example of 14th century art as practised in the Region. In the nearby coister you can also admire some frescoes by Friedrich Pacher which go back as far as 496.

At the southern entrance to the Old City, this building creates a three dimensional town with a city gate, pathways and open spaces which connect the various business areas internally as well as vertically. The large glass surfaces of the otherwise smooth and forbidding aluminum and glass facade create an individual setting for the way into the city of Bolzano – the openness and exclusivity of commercial activities are recorded here. The corner building marks clearly the city's border; all that is missing is an adjoining building to complete this effect. The interior spaces are of an ideal temperature, using very little energy altogether. A closed office atmosphere is avoided by the transparency of the succession of rooms created by elegant glass walls and light corridors; teamwork is encouraged and the visitor is openly welcomed.

The contemporary longing for nature and sports in the city influenced the thinking of the Fascist municipal government of Bolzano/Bozen and, as a result, had an outdoor swimming complex built on the banks of the Isarco/Eisack River. From a horticultural viewpoint, the site was designed as a striking landscape architecture within the urban area. The buildings show the influence of the Italian rationalist thought of those years, oriented towards the Bauhaus. Clear functionality and a design that is both reduced and concentrated on the essential, avoided Fascist monumentality of any kind. The plastered entrance building with its sweeping terrace section shows expressive motifs that do not deny the influence of the Gmunden outdoor pool by Franz Gessner, a student of Otto Wagner's. Although this architecture seemed strange to the South Tyroleans of the day, it is nevertheless of lasting quality.

Formations from the last ice age The earth pyramids are geological formations from the last ice age. Since then the red clayey ground slides away from the meadows and the forests and give life to the earth pyramids. The 'Margarethenbach' (a stream) originates here and flows into the Etschtal towards Siebeneich.

Walther von der Vogelweide's statue was built using local marble by Heinrich Natter, a sculptor from Vinschgau, in 1889. the statue was temporarily removed from ist previous setting during the fascist government (Rosegger Parc) to be returned to ist original spot which had been intenden for it back in 1985.

The Province Technical College for the Health Professions was built in close proximity to Bolzano Hospital. The two-story reinforced concrete structure, surrounded by a glass facade, towers on an L-shaped plan. With steel supports for the balconies in front of the facade and the broad, cantilevered canopy construction, which goes around the whole building. The structure is light, almost floating, an interesting contrast to the monumental staircases built in front. The interior design, with floors made of pale natural stone, partition walls made from maple, glass and aluminum as well as its warm colors, lend Claudiana Province Technical College a pleasant atmosphere. There is a broad, square tiled plaza in front of the building, which conveys a very spacious feel.

 

The romanic church of Saint Valentine was built between the 12th and 13th century. The development of the church is connected with the ruins of Castle Greifenstein. The tower was built around the 15th century. 

Under Mussolini in the 1930s, Italian factory workers were settled in a garden city called the Semirurali. These very simple houses with gardens for self-sufficiency were demolished in the postwar period, and replaced by modern residential buildings. The new complex tried not to distribute and make freely accessible the individual residential buildings around the property but rather to plan squares and streets in accordance with the existing “rules of urban design.” In the spaces between, contiguous rows of buildings were built. They border the streets and squares, as was common in the cities before the relaxed construction of modern times gave up these norms. In spite of the row construction, the buildings stand out as individual homes because of the arrangement of loggias and glass coverings as the color scheme, and thereby convey a feeling of identity.

 

Behind the monastery garden rises the light facade of the Kapuzin Monastery, next to which the disguised new school building built in a grey sandstone sits unnoticed. A section of wall was added onto the old east-facing facade, behind which there is a corridor with classrooms that look onto the intimate monastery courtyard. The majority of the rooms had to be built underground due to the extremely limited space available. Illumination in these rooms has been created through skylights in the garden and sophisticated guided shafts of light. This directed lighting removes any trace of a cellar-like feeling, and allows for a highly concentrated learning environment. An elegant set of steel steps leads from the entrance hall to all of the floors; all of the corridors are colorfully decorated. An aesthetic symbiosis between the old and the new has been found for this place of teaching and learning.

Like every city Bolzano too faces the fast pace of urban life. However, with just a few steps you can leave your stress behind and immerse yourself in the peaceful tranquillity of famous walks.

Guncina and S.Osvaldo, for example, completed at the end of 1800, are well renowned routes gently climbing through Mediterranean vegetation up to the top of the surrounding hills and offering stunning views over the city.
Lungotalvera Bolzano and Lungotalvera San Quirino are immersed in the lush Petrarca Park and meadows along the Talvera river. These walks are right adjacent to the city centre and provide an opportunity to practice various sports and recreational activities.

Download the paths: Promenades in Bolzano

The Alessandro Casciaro Art Gallery is an international art gallery presenting modern and contemporary masterpieces by some of the most significant Italian as well as central European artists, selected for the quality of their quest and the uniqueness of their pictorial language, alongside works by emerging young artists, promoting them and developing their international profile. Founded in Bolzano in 2015 by Alessandro Casciaro as a successor to the Goethe Gallery, the first art gallery in South Tyrol (founded in 1964 by Ennio Casciaro), the Alessandro Casciaro Art Gallery can now look back on more than fifty years of important exhibitions, independently curated catalogues, collaborations and arts fairs, with the aim of providing varied and intense stimuli and objectives for the future of contemporary art in both Italy and Europe.

Urban planning considerations led to three parallel, elongated wings of varying heights, the two-story covered entrance which is situated on Lazzeriniplatz Square. Its use of the same materials: exposed concrete, steel and glass throughout, and consistent design, convey an architectonically heterogeneous environment of tranquility and space. From the entrance you walk into a spacious, light-flooded hall between the first and second wings, which reaches all of the floors. Underneath there is the sports hall, with stair towers at the ends. The glazed steel bridges, designed by Heimo Zobernig, allow for open access to the third wing and to the break area of the roof terrace.

Based on the urban concept of Dutch architect Frits van Dongen, this group of buildings nettled between orchards and vineyards was developed with farmsteads and castles in mind. In keeping with the “Living in the Park” concept, the three separate buildings comprising the polygonal residential block are centered around a spacious courtyard. Large free-form entrances connect it to the underground garage and form the well-lit main entrance to the complex. Sophisticated architectural design was created in order to conform to the restrictive guidelines for the sponsored residential complex. Four layout designs and three different window shapes were employed in creating flats for 92 families, all designed slightly differently. The exteriors are of a rough, beige concrete while the smooth, white-varnished facades of the courtyard optimize the open space of the private courtyard.

The Talvera river runs through the city of Bolzano. The water course originates from the Sarentino Valley and its banks are home to beautiful green lawns, recreational parks, long walks and modern cycle routes. This is the green lung of the city and a popular destination for both tourists and local residents that provide rest and relaxation to those strolling along the tree-lines paths as well as fun for the younger ones in the playgrounds. There are also many sport facilities in the area which attract football, baseball and softball lovers. The Druso, Talvera and S.Antonio bridges are the three main links over the stream, but there are also some footbridges allowing for short or long round trips, on foot or by bicycle.

The Cristallo Theatre offers performances of different companies from Italy.

Piazza Gries, with the architectural complex of the Abbey of Benedettini di Muri-Gries on the right handside, is right in the middle of the quarter. The monastery, initially hosting Agostinian monks (1406), was damaged by peasant revolts in 1525 and destroyed during the Napoleonic wars. It was suppressed by the Bavarian government in 1807 and donated by the Austrian Emperor to Benedectine Muri Monks (Switzerland) in 1845. The oldest centre is the castle, built by the Morit-Greifenstein Counts in 1200, and whose original 'mastio' (tower) today is the church's bell tower. It hosts one of the heaviest bells in Alto Adige (5,026 kg).

Butcher's shop Schrott has been operating for more than 40 years and you will not find just high quality meat there. Dumplings, lasagna, schlutzkrapfen, sauces, side dishes and much more are waiting to be tested.

One of the most typical streets of the City centre, adorned with pretty plaques in wrought iron, various typical restaurants and the historical Hotel Luna Mondschein. At the ent of the street, heading north you'll find the Museum of Natural Science, housed in the administrative centre of the Emperor and Count of Tyrol Maximilian I (built in 1512). Near the Museum you'll also find the historic Restaurants "Weißes Rössl" and "Batzenhäusl" favoured by various artists.

Exhibition of sacred furniture from the baroque époque in the Tyrolean area. Next to the precious liturgical vestments and gonfalons painted by famous artists, the museum also stands out for its precious jewels from the 18th century.

Loffererhof Farm and its greenhouses, located behind the old Gries church, were demolished shortly after 1900, and the elementary school and kindergarten were built in 1908. The school was renovated in 1998. A gymnasium was added to this building group in 2002, an independent fourth building that encloses the intermediate schoolyard space. The transparent construction, a steel-and-glass structure, is reminiscent of the Orangerie that was formerly located here. The ball-proof suspended construction of the glass façade makes the building appear transparent and affords views of the old chestnut tree. The cafeteria, a final addition, was completed in 2008, inserted into the narrow space between the street and the old school building underground with a skylight in such a way that the historical building still appears detached.

Museion and its bridge link the old Austrian and the new Italian neighborhoods of the city, creating a built connection to a new era opposite the divisive Fascist architecture of the victory monument. The stylistic idiom of the mostly closed building, wrapped in its aluminum armor and with its far-reaching right angles, opens onto both parts of the city with its glassed narrow sides, encouraging one to enter. These glass facades are transformed into projection screens in the urban setting when darkness falls. The purely white architecture takes over the clear rooms inside, without dominating: a function to serve diverse exhibitions. The two swaying parts of the bridge over the Talvera/Talfer River form part of the museum’s concept: they symbolize the crossover of the two cultures that coexist here.

The Fascist Youth GIL Buildings emerged in Merano/Meran, Bressanone/Brixen and Bolzano/Bozen in the 1930s according to designs by the architects Miozzo and Mansutti. Although in need of renovation, only the Bressanone structure has retained its original form. In Bolzano one of the most important buildings of Fascist Italy's rationalism period, a structure that had already been dilapidated, has been successfully repurposed. It was renovated and expanded through a competition. The fact that an Austrian architect achieved this, shows the overlap of cultures in Bolzano. The renovated, heritage-listed old building sections, painted in Tuscany red, were contrasted with a transparent building of glass and steel on a lightweight concrete structure, which also redefined the urban context with a vestibule, garden café and garden courtyard. The design of the interior spaces is just as light as that of the external appearance.

It is the Cathedral of the Bolzano Bozen- Bressanone Brixen Diocese. It conceals the remains of an early Christian, Medieval and Romanesque (1180) basilica. A hundred years later works are commenced to build a new imposing building which is completed around 1420 by combining the expertise of workers of Lombardy with the gothic style brought by the Swabian expertise over the decades. The bell tower stand over the square, 65 metres tall, with a spire in openwork in sandstone by the Swabian architect Hans Lutz von Schussenried, who completed it between 1501 and 1519. To see: the cross built in Veronese style, the "Wine door", the Romanesque Portal with porch lions, the rose window, the fresco "Virgin with child" credited to Friedrich Pacher, inside the gothic pulpit, the baroque Chapel of the Three Maries.

A little further north of piazza Gries stands the old parish church of Gries located in the middle of an antique cemetery. It is a late Gothic building, dating back to the early 1400, and hosts two stunning treasures: the altar of Michael Pacher (1471-75) and the Romanesque wooden crucifix of 1200. The first one is undoubtedly a masterpiece of Gothic art of the wooden altars with casket and hatch remaining today, while the second one, which probably in relation to north French sculpture is believed to be of foreign origin, is considered of great relevance.

The church stands in an area which was inhabited ever since Roman times. It was called "Keller", or "Chellare" (cellar), and later named "Gries", or sand. Until 1908 the wine farm of Bishop of Frisinga in Baviera stood next to the church.

In the tower next to the Steifler court were payed the taxes in form of natural materials. During the 17th century some of these taxes was changed in money. Today it's possible to visit this old tower from the outside. 

In terms of design, responding to Angiolo Mazzoni's imposing train station building (1928), on the opposite side of the street, was no easy task. This has been achieved to the point that the new building, like the train station, goes beyond architecture and is now an urban structure. Its undulated form, which is divided into individual houses, is determined by the surrounding urban spaces: by the semicircular station square on the front, by the rectangular Magnagoplatz, and by the Laurin- and Rittner Straße at the rear. The building itself is crossed by three radial passageways from the station square and has two inner courtyards. The facades on the ground and mezzanine floors are clad in white marble, the four upper floors in reddish porphyry. The interior spaces of the building are well illuminated; the design of the office departments is varied.

The restaurant with its own brewery is open 360 days a year.

Here you can find culinary delights from the South-Tyrolean and Italian cuisine with a refreshing beer, brewed according to German Purity Law "Reinheitsgebot" of 1516.

The railway line Verona-Bolzano was completed during the first half of the 20th century, while the railway Station dates back to 1928 and is the project of Angelo Mazzoni, with different allegorical sculptural contributions by Franz Ehrenhöfer (representing electricity, steam and rivers). The "Frog Fountain" right opposite the Station was rebuilt following the original design of 1930, following its destruction after the bombings of WWII.

It was Mussolini’s idea to establish a memorial to the fallen soldiers of the First World War on the site where a monument to the Kaiserjäger had already been commenced. A collection of donations throughout the whole of Italy financed the new monument. However, the architect designed a victory monument in the style of Roman triumphal arches as apologia for the conquest-hungry fascists with its insignia and an inscription, which refers to the martial tradition of the Roman Empire. It was seen as a grave insult to German-speaking South Tyroleans. After lengthy negotiations between the province of South Tyrol and the Italian cultural ministry, the high-fenced-in monument opened, in the catacombs of the building, a permanent exhibition in 2014 about events that unfolded under two dictatorships from 1918-1945, in order to improve understanding and communication.

Bolzano Christmas Market ─ The magic atmosphere of the festive decorations on the white tree, the nativity, the advent crown, the scented cakes and confectionery made week after week by the expert hands of those who keep their secret recipes and tricks. This awaited event is aimed at rediscovering the traditions that, in Alto Adige, are hidden behind the four weeks of the Advent, in anticipation of the most beautiful festival of the year that evolves through rituals and traditions lost in the dark ages.