Culture & attractions along the Alto Adige Wine Road

The Saint Nicholas church in Penon was first mentioned during the 14th Century. It is worth visiting the sacramental house made of sandstone, which possibly dates from around 1380 - Alto Adige's oldest example carved in stone.

Business carried on as usual during the building and conversion work, which succeeded in transforming the high expectations placed on wine production into an architectural form. A symbol of urban development was simultaneously designed as part of the entranceway. Sections of the pre-existing building were flanked by the wings of the new buildings, making for an impressive welcome at the winery. This means that the delivery area and customer reception are completely separated by a story. The architecture of the new buildings seems to have grown out of the vineyard landscape − the design of the facade, with its steel construction and glass surfaces takes the form of the vineyards in a symbolic connection between the sloping vineyards and the winery. Inside is a light, spacious area constructed from wood and glass, while in the cellar bright colors have been employed.

Architect Othmar Barth has created a pioneering South Tyrolean hotel architecture by this building, proving that in South Tyrol modern regional architecture in its own right is possible, and that it doesn't necessarily have to refer to Alpine decoration. The refined, undulating building is nestled on the edge of the Caldaro vineyards and appears, though freestanding, to be integrated into the landscape, breathing the spirit of the place. The structure is slightly removed from the shore of the lake, and its restaurant, terraces and the shaded loggias of the rooms afford clear views of the meadows, even as far as the reeds on the glittering surface of the lake. Simple materials such as copper, wood, stone and plastered masonry add to the successful scale of the building; they also determine the interior and lend the hotel a sense of timelessness.

The Walch Winery is housed in a former Jesuit monastery, with neighboring buildings. For the reception and tasting areas, a garden pavilion was planned at what was likely the most difficult spot in the park: it was built at the top of the junction in the village street that runs down from the town hall square. From there, one can see only the drywall of the boundary, and a curved white roof as an “extension” of the wall covering. Through three slots in the masonry, one can see the park with its huge trees. But one also sees the floor-to-ceiling glass facade of the elegant pavilions under the overhanging roof edge in the garden courtyard, contained by the wall. In the narrow interior space, wooden fixtures with a breakfast bar and a curtain wall are located in front of the side rooms. On it, the bottles are exhibited horizontally. An inviting ensemble with service in the park.

Be enchanted from the subtle perfume and the exellent taste of our distillates!

The pleasure of tasting the distillate should wake up memories from a warm summer evening under the fruit tree, from a walk through the wineyards or from gandmothers kitchen, where the jam gets boiled. With great passion, love and ambition we make sure that this experience comes true.

The church of Saint Nicolaus was build in the 13th century and renewed in the 16. century.

This large stone from the Bronze Age can be found along the Grauner Weg, but unfortunately, its original place of origin is not known. Its many engraved symbols are still a mystery today.

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.

Baumgarten Manor was a grand estate with several buildings dating from the thirteenth century, which underwent a number of structural modifications. For renovation and remodeling for repurposing, the existing heritage-listed structure was to be preserved and modern features adjoined where needed. A three-story block was added in order to connect the individual tracts. All new components were designed as steel-and-glass structures so that they would stand out clearly from the solid, plastered original building, without being pushed to the forefront intrusively. The inner courtyard was paved, trees were planted and an illuminated guide line to the entrances was embedded into the ground. It continues at the main entrance as a gully. This guide line recurs in the interior corridors, its careful use of color conveying an atmosphere that is almost artistic.

In the center of the village, only a stone's throw from the market place, stands one of the wine village’s oldest houses, which has housed a hotel since 1742. In the back, the plot of land stretches up the mountainside and borders orchards and vineyards. At the highest point a wooden pavilion with large glass fronting stands on the roof of the new underground garage, built to be a wellness temple. The sauna provides an excellent view over Caldaro/Kaltern and into the Überetsch. The transition from the necessarily closed, dark rooms out into the garden is smooth, illuminated as it is by light shafts. An outdoors pool with a terrace is adjoined in such a way that the passages over into the vineyards seems self-evident. The old building is tastefully renovated; the old contrasts the new in the reception area, bar, wine cellar and bedrooms, all of which have an individual character to them.

Strictly speaking, Kaltern Winery was built for 420 clients: winemakers, usually with very small acreage, who joined in a cooperative. In order to strengthen the mobile perception of the winery, a striking building was built in front of the village center, between the old winery building and the South Tyrolean Wine Road. The angular complex around the quiet inner courtyard forms a memorable landmark, together with the tower-like corner building. Large, flush glass areas are set into the bronzed façade cladding, in which the environment appears as in a distorting mirror. As you cross the courtyard you walk into an open interior structure that affords fascinating views from several levels. The materials are limited to glass, white wall surfaces and dark acacia wood. Wine is the star of the show here, accompanied by a sophisticated yet simple art concept.

The “Hofkeller” was first mentioned in documents at the beginning of the 14th century. It has a massive gable roof. It was once the seat of the feudal administration, which passed from the Lords of Salorno/Salurn to the Counts of Tyrol. On the east side of the building, on the ground floor, there is a large hall with a cross vault supported by two rows of seven slender columns made of Prun stone and by pilasters. The imposing building already impressed the first South Tyrolean chronicler Marx Sittich von Wolkenstein, as he wrote in his description of Tyrol published in 1600.

From a medieval core, remodelled in the 17th century during the Renaissance, a pointed-arch courtyard gate with stone surround and family crest leads onto the street. The stone archway features the letter "A" with an arrow as a bar. Above the front door is a coat of arms in stone consisting of three wavelike curving lines and the initials "L.H.". The ribbed vault and shouldered-arch doors date from 1500; the stone-framed rectangular and double-arched windows, as well as a bay on the façade, are from the 17th century.

This cooperative winery was founded in 1960, and today its 290 members work more than 300 hectares of vineyards. The industrial buildings in which the winery was located on the outskirts of Cornaiano/Girlan, no longer matched the quality of the wines and its associated image. So the first step of remodeling the commercial building was to give it an attractive wood façade, with vertical oak floorboards and deep reveals with steel sheets for the necessary openings. A second construction phase implemented a visually light, steel structure as a roof for the delivery area, under which all-new winemaking equipment was installed. In addition, the tasting room was refurbished. Since the hillside winery is visible from afar, a steel trellis was placed on the street level of the buildings as an entryway, and the road was planted with cypresses to create an avenue.

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 architects have succeeded in creating an exemplary alternative in this modern housing development: in addition to fixed adjacent row houses, they formed eight freestanding houses into a village-like group of homes, which have beautiful garden areas and are nicely integrated into the hillside. The individual structures are in fact connected to one another through the lower levels, but appear to be scattered, being lightly twisted along the wide pedestrian development, which is at the same time a play street above the underlying parking garage. The buildings are classical, with various types of houses again and again − plastered masonry with well-designed perforated facades, deep loggias and subtle colors. The housing group was developed jointly by the architects of the owners’ association, and received the 2011 South Tyrolean Architecture Award.

Lageder Winery is located in the center of the wine village Magrè/Margreid and next to the historical Löwengang Manor. The design concept focused on the optimal integration of the building, the sustainable use of nature as well as biological architectural, ecological, and artistic criteria. Plastered masonry, wood and glass under a protective roof with solar panels, a thermally regulated glass hall and cooling through the moist rock wall were all made into building elements. The circular cellar tower is the building’s center, and its vertical curve represents the gentle “vertical principle” of vinification: the grapes are delivered and de-stemmed under the freestanding roof; then they are pressed and fermented one floor below; the steel barrels and bottling plant, meanwhile, are located at the lowest level. The oak barrels are situated in the adjacent old building. At the level of the delivery, there are offices around an interior glass hall.

The conversion of a formerly rustic residence near the center of the village into a modern cultural center was successful thanks to careful consideration and a soft touch as regards the historical side to the building. Visible from the outside, a new entrance with a foyer in a contemporary joining building was nevertheless added on, which is elegantly inserted next to the large old building with its steel and glass construction. A beautiful, peaceful inner courtyard was created through this merging of the buildings, which can also be used for open-air events. Inside the building modern details have been carefully connected to what was already there; the white color scheme throughout, in combination with the natural colors of the wooden materials, stone and stainless steel creates a calm background for a diverse range of events.

It was decided at Lake Caldaro/Kaltern, the warmest lake in the Alps, to create an outdoor swimming pool with an unusual bathing complex instead of a season-lengthening indoor pool. The architect took advantage of the downslope to the lake, leading the swimmer from the entrance between airy pavilions, with wide-spread winged roofs made of steel for shade, past the bistro, to a wooden-planked terrace reminiscent of a ship's deck. Here the swimming pools lie on an underlying free surface with rain room and whirlpool complex, which serves as a shady area in the summer. From here, swimmers in the overlying basin can be seen from below through circles of glass. The entire complex looks like a refined moving concrete sculpture that seems to float above the lawn in front of the lake.

The fruit cooperative frubona Obstgenossenschaft Terlan originally arises from six cooperatives in the Bozen-Etsch Valley area. It has existed in its present form since 2010. 426 members cultivate a total of 1,154.55 ha of net area. In the shop you can buy apples.

The old building of the Cantina Terlano is situated in the middle of the village. It managed to cautiously expand, mainly underground, as the plot of land it sits upon is quite small. Visible above ground are the large delivery yard and the terrace above it, with the transparent tasting room. The underlying outer wall of the new cellar rooms is clad in dry stone work made from the typical porphyritic rock found in the Terlano vineyards, and the remaining underground construction is planted over with vines in order to help the new sections of building blend into the landscape. The heart of the new cellar rooms is the barrel cellar, decorated in porphyritic rock panels, which create an almost sacred atmosphere. The original parts of the building were carefully restored and a landmark tower, clad in Corten steel, and lift were added.

In 1523, the inn of Laurenz Wurnigger from Carinthia, also called Windisch, who is probably still remembered by the "Windischwald" (forest) above the village. The owner is Juliana Puphtalerin, wife of Wolfgang Canz, a country writer in Rottenburg am Neckar and in 1551 bailiff of the dominion of Bregenz. In 1554, the inn "zum Payr" was sold. Until 1611, this house was called "zum Zotten", before it was renamed "Wirthshaus An der Roten Rosen" (Inn at the Red Roses) by Georg Osterried, the caretaker of the Fuggers at Enn Castle, and in 1619 it fell to Susanna Payr of Caldiff as a debt. After several changes of ownership, Pastor Alexander Giovanelli acquired this house in 1717 and 1725. When he died in 1743, he bequeathed his entire estate to the poor, the church and the brotherhood in Montan, as well as a benefice he had founded in his home village of Carano. Property of the Resch family from 1744 to 1782, then owned by the Zuveith family until 1908. Since 1908 property of the Amplatz family.

A special feature of this house is the Gothic parlour with its richly carved beamed ceiling, which bears witness to around 500 years of living culture. Also preserved are sandstone frames on the entrance door and window, the latter with a pentagram and the year 1565.

This winery, rich of traditions, has seen many alterations over the years and the cellar area in particular was extended and reorganized in 2011. An underground concrete construction was built to form a new fermentation cellar with a pressing chamber, over which a curved roof was built in order to protect the delivery. A concrete structure was also chosen for the new storage room, the west-facing wall, which gives out onto the orchard and was covered in wire baskets filled with excavated stones. These gabions were also used along the border and, as a design feature of the building extension, are reminiscent of the terroir of the vineyards. A beautiful reception courtyard is situated between the old and new buildings, displaying a fountain sculpture and planted tree, forming the new central point in the structure of the building.

It was most probably built at the same time (the end of the 12th century or the beginning of the 13th century) and probably used for fires that were used as signals. Kreideturm: the tower is situated just 50 m below Burg Hocheppan. Architectural style: a wall, which has now fallen down, surrounded the tower. There are still a few metres visible on the south side. On the other side there is a lower lying entrance that was probably used to light the fires. The inside of the tower is a narrow dark shaft. Walking: all walks to Hocheppan go past this tower.

Extended structure consisting of three components dating from the Renaissance of the early 17th century. The starting point for its architectural development was a two-storey Gothic core on the Kirchplatz with the basement containing two large, vaulted rooms used for agricultural purposes. Several sandstone-framed windows and a portal in stone with lozenge-shaped ashlars and rosettes indicate the significant extension works during the Renaissance.

A large park is located directly to the east of the Steinkellerhaus.

Without bigger difficulties one can recognise that this municipality matured after the parochial foundation of Eppan about 1147 to the richest Pfarre of South Tirol with headquarter in St Paul. She was fine so well-to-do on account of many noble inhabitants of this area who, as it was a custom, of course supported the church. After 1786 it was divided the Pfarre for the first time into Girlan (Girlan, Schreckbichl and Frangart) and St Paul (St Paul, Saint Michael, Montiggl, mountain, Missian, untermargin, Perdonig and Gaid). In 1921 this happened next time: The principal place of the municipality - Saint Michael - was appointed with Montiggl, Gand, Pigeno and southern half by Eppan/mountain to the new Pfarre Saint Michael. On account of the plentiful financial possibilities one began in 1484 with the construction of an especially nice church. The magnitudes of the untercatch were extensive, it lasted therefore also till 1533, until the church was ready. The tower, 86 m high, experienced his own history within the scope of the construction work. From the late 15th century up to the middle of the 17th century there lasted his construction. For this reason he also unites two architectural styles: While Under - and middle section are held in the Gothic style, the end with the onion dome visible far away in baroque kind forms. In his inside there are nine bells, the heaviest one of it weighs 5 tonnes and sounds in deep A. You pleasantly voluminous sound remind us of the fact that this "instrument of God" second largest is in the country. A solar clock from 1718, Funeraldenkmäler of the noble Firmian, Khuen, Thun, rests of Late-Gothic Seccomalereien... There is a lot to see at this place! Something else: The church of St Paul is the only church far and wide which is consecrated only to Holy Paulus. This is not so natural at all, because Paulus is always called in connection with Holy Peter...

Between Caldaro/Kaltern and the lake lies a vineyard landscape with beautiful residences, including Manicor’s Renaissance structure. Because its new wine cellar, with a cubic capacity of 30,000 cubic meters, would have severely intruded upon this landscape, it was built underground. Only the wooden sales pavilion was added to the previously existing ensemble. The cellar appears only through the entrances and the glass “eye” of the tasting room, which affords views across to Leuchtenburg Castle. Rows of vines further cover the underground facility. A carefully formed concrete construction with building elements made of Corten steel was placed between sprayed concrete walls in the tempered ground. In this way a uniform climate for sustainable architecture has been ensured, which focuses on the gentle processing of grapes according to the tenets of biodynamic viticulture.

The location of Castel Freudenstein makes you enjoy a great view on Bolzano and the mountain ranges of the surroundings. Catinaccio, Sciliar and large parts of the Val d’Adige, this is what you can admire from Castel Freudenstein. This mighty mansion was constructed in the High Middle Ages, in the 13th century.