Culture & attractions in Brixen/Bressanone and environs

The succursal church of St. Ägidius in Raas is a late-Gothic building, and was completed by the constructor Thomas Maurer in 1532. The neo-Gothic interior mostly dates from around 1880. On the high altar, one can see St. Ägidius, the patron of the church and the protector of viticulture. In Raas, the now rare custom of the bread donation and bread distribution is still practised on the day of the church patron in September.

Although consecrated in 1281, St. Margaretha, the late Gothic parish curch in Schabs was only completed in 1454. By the end of the eighteen century its interior had been reconstructed in Baroque style with its poral framed in Stone. It is worth noting that the 72 m bell-Tower is unusually tall and narrow.

The building is situated in a key position on the edge of town. It forms a gateway  between the historical series of façades and the newer neighboring buildings. It is a clear and contemporary structure that asserts itself within its environment, plays with the proportions of the surrounding buildings, and generates excitement through its cubic nesting. The reinforced concrete construction, coated with special weather-resistant plaster, allows for large projections and recesses in the three-story building structure. As a result, open spaces are created in front of the hotel rooms, some of which are illuminated above like little yards, and thus feel very protected and intimate. Another roof opening also allows daylight into the interior of the building. The planted roof terrace offers a beautiful view over the rooftops of the city and onto the mountains around Bressanone's valley basin.

A sports ground with an outdoor and indoor pool, the Aquarena, was built north of the Bressanone Old Town. It is the result of a competition provided for the extension, which was to include a music school, underground parking and an indoor climbing gym; the latter has now been built. The climbing gym had to be of a certain height: a cube that is highly visible amongst the surrounding buildings thus emerged, which can also be viewed as a landmark. It not only affords good views of the city, but also allows one to see into the hall, and meets ecological considerations. The reinforced concrete structure, which has a steel-and-glass façade, also has a second façade level of corrugated gold-colored perforated plate elements that give the interior soft light without harsh shadows. The hall is accessed along a monumental staircase, which is also planned to serve as the entrance to the music school that will be built next door.

This unusual house is situated amongst a quite standard new village architecture. It consists of two sections: one constructed from parts of a 300-year-old farmhouse in which the farmer's and architect's family have been living for centuries, and another new building that crouches under the large tree trunks. The idea to live under mounted tree trunks came to the architect when he was a child playing in the woods, and he subsequently made it a reality. The stacked, untreated tree trunks do not hide a dingy living space beneath, but rather glass walls and openings that create an artful play of light when inside. In addition many other materials were used, from rough concrete mixed with glass shards to the extremely shiny stainless steel kitchen. A highly imaginative design here from the architect.

The parish church of the same name, which was first mentioned in 1177, is located in the rapidly growing capital St. Andrä. Its late gothic reconstruction in the period around 1485 with a presbytery and tower which is still characteristic today.  In the 18th century a striking baroque style was introduced. Georg Tangl, director of the Brixen seminary and  priest of St. Andrä, provided for a rich decoration with stucco (Franz Singer) around 1770. Around 1736 the ceiling frescoes by Jakob Jennewein depicting the martyrdom of St. Andrew were painted. In 1930 the altarpiece was painted by Johann Baptist Oberkofler.

The Maria Hilf Chapel in the cemetery is a compact octagonal building dating from 1696, and the octagon, a work by the Bolzano master builder Delai, is considered an important model of Baroque central building. The altars of Mary, Anthony and Notburga are also works of art from the late 17th century.

The Rienza ravine, a wild-romantic gorge with former power plant (not open for visits).

The village museum gives you an interesting view of the rural life in South Tyrol. The Gufidaun village museum has three main collections: the everyday rural culture, the crafts and the local art. The museum houses an original "soot kitchen" and various pieces of rural furniture and everyday objects, which are arranged into ensembles. A complete cobbler's workshop provides an insight into the versatility of this old craft. A special feature of the museum is the Telfner corner. The painter Josef Telfner, originally from Meran, lived in Gufidaun for many years. He painted watercolours with various views of the village and portrayed numerous people from Gudon.

On request visits possible all year round: tel. +39 0472 847 399 or +39 348 7747339 (Otto Schenk)

The Neustift vineyards have distinctive long, dry stone walls. There is a group of three-family houses that rises up out of these stone walls. The wooden construction of the larger building rests on a ground floor made of stone work; the smaller building is an all-wooden structure sitting on terraces built from dry stone walls. An open expanse of garden stretches between them with a naturally formed pond. The slanting exterior walls that rise up, covered in wooden slat, are designed to protect the facade from driving rain. Windows are cut deep into this slanting wall, forming loggias. The interior reveals an unusual, imaginative sequence of rooms with white and partially colorful walls, and many wooden structures. The construction manager covers the heating requirements of both houses with waste wood from his carpentry business.

Campofosso Lake is also a deep blue alpine lake (2.439m) with a legendary story: once upon a time there was a beautiful, green meadow in the Campofosso area. This was the property of the richest farmer in the village of Terento. A young shepherd, with eyes as blue as gentian, used to live here. One day, the only daughter of the farmer brought his lunch up to him. When she looked into his eyes she fell in love. He fell in love too. Some time went by, but the farmer's daughter did not visit the shepherd again. One day, the farm labourer brought lunch up to the alpine pasture and informed the shepherd about the upcoming farmers' daughter's wedding. The shepherd was petrified and the mountain trolls provoked a storm. Instead of the alpine hut, the farmers' daughter found a lake, as blue as the eyes of the shepherd.

On the edge of the slope ending at Rodeneck Castle over the Rienz river, lies a white cubic building visible from afar. The three-story building houses a youth and workroom on the ground floor, and is accessed from the outside by a vast ramp. The entrance hall has a stunning view over the valley. The canteen is on this level and the classrooms are situated on the upper floors. The building, made of concrete, is roughly plastered on the outside and has evenly spaced large windows, their smooth, white frames calmly decorate the facade. Even the interior spaces have been kept purely white; only the red rubber flooring and the yellow tiled bathrooms add color to the school, which also has a self-contained kindergarten.

Sabiona is the spiritual cradle of the entire Tyrol region and one of its oldest monuments.

Today, the fortress is the site of the enclosed convent of the Benedictine nuns. Some parts of the monument can be visited every day from 8 a.m. to 5 or 6 p.m.

Instead, the church of Our Lady is open from the middle of April to the end of octobre every Tuesday  from 2 to 5 p.m. Guidet tours on request. 
Groups of 15 or more persons can reserve a guided tour even outside normal hours. Information in the Tourist Office Klausen, Tel. 0472 847 424

Holy Mass: Sunday at 8:30 clock and Monday – Saturday at 7:15 clock (German)

In commemoration of the 175th anniversary of the struggle for the Liberation of Tyrol, the Company of traditional marksmen from Schabs, built the Chapel of the Sacred Heart in 1984. The chapel is located northwest of Schabs, on the way to Viums.

A House of worship was mentioned in Terento in 1362, a church must have been there long before this however. Bishop Hartmann from Bressanone consecrated an altar in 1162. A new long nave was constructed in 1683/84. The Parish Church was extended from 1848 to 1850 and re-designed in a late Romanic style. A comprehensive restoration took place in 1964. During the course of this restoration, the foundation walls of an almost square-shaped church room from Roman times were discovered. Preserved from the late-gothic building are the choir with its three-sided completion, and the rectangular block stone tower with pointed acoustic windows. The long nave was reconstructed in late Roman style at the middle of the 19th century. The barrel vault dates back to the late Roman reconstruction and is decorated with ceiling paintings by Christoph Brandstätter. The ceiling paintings were restored in 1896. The altars of the Parish Church show the transition from classicism to late-gothic. Adjacent to the Parish Church you can admire a late-gothic Holy Cross Chapel, which was consecrated in 1520. The chapel impresses with a polygonal choir and a stellar vault.

In 1726 a little church was dedicated to the miners of the “Pfunderer” mine. However, it was immediately too small so that today’s construction of the Early Baroque with choir and little tower was built in 1736. The secluded little church was expanded in 1934, though plundered and devastated in 1964. Until the First Wold War there had have been a weekly mass, initially Saturdays, since 1840 every Thursday. The cultural and historical altarpiece is a replica, the original altarpiece is located in the parish church to the St. Stephen. It shows the miners at work and around them the saints of the miners. (St. Daniel, evangelist John, Virgin Mother with the baby Jesus and her mother the saint Anne, as well as patron saint of the mines Barbara)

Directly along the bike route into the Pusteria Valley you’ll find Lanz Bike Station, next to the busy street, right at the entrance to the valley. Due to its extremely convenient location the station has also developed into a popular meeting place for vehicle drivers, who find ample parking here. An elongated structure made of plastered reinforced concrete has been created out of an earlier makeshift wooden vendor stand, which is set into the steep hillside. The owner of the station is so connected to it that he had his own house built as a white cube with terrace on the roof of the ground-floor service area. The residence is decorated in a varied way: floor-to-ceiling glass walls for the sales and guest areas, a sheltered garden courtyard and adjoining rooms that seem to be closed off. Everything is painted in gray-brown earth tones in order to emphasize the integration into the area.

A display board in the Rienzschlucht gorge provides information on the 11-km long natural pressure water system of Lüsen, which was constructed on the high plateau in the 1950s. Thanks to this pioneering work, life on the high plateau was changed fundamentally. From a poor arid region, it turned into a thriving landscape anda bustling tourist destination.

In 1983, a fountain was built in honor of the founder of the soil improvement consortium on the High Apple Plateau of Natz, Mr. Jakob Auer Flötscher. The fountain in the center of Natz displays his bust in bronze. Auer was a pioneer of environmentalism, as he was the driving force in the construction of a natural pressure water system, which has provided the high plateau with fresh water ever since.

 

This church in Gufidaun originates from the 15th century. The cultivated vestry, also called Koburger chapel, contains a noteworthy fresco cycle of the Ambrosius Gander from the valley "Jaufental". Holy Mass: Saturday at 18:00 clock and Sunday at 9:00 clock (german)

Face the sun to leave the shadows behind! (Blessing) The brightness has a positive effect on the mood. To underline the status of the sun, so-called “nature solariums” were realised, the first of this type in South Tyrol. The solariums are situated at two different locations in Terento. In addition to enjoying some healthy vitamin D therapy and deceleration, they also offer a splendid view of the Dolomites.

The pilgrimage church Maria am Sand, with its picture of the Virgin Mary possessing miraculous powers who gives the Christ baby a pear, is the old parish church of Milland and goes back to the 14th century. Around the middle of the 15th century, the church was extended with a vault in the nave, a tower as well as a pointed arch-portal and it was changed into Baroque style in the 18th century.

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.

Its successful scale, the distribution of its building volumes and its integration into the site unite the new building so harmoniously with the village structure that one would think it had been standing there since ever. Only upon second glance does one notice that the architecture is a reinterpretation of South Tyrolean residential construction forms ̶  without the Alpine decor. Pitched roofs atop solid plastered masonry with perforated facades and the construction raising from the ground, without a plinth, carry forward this architectural tradition. The building’s connecting components, made of glass and with carefully designed details, are thematic of our time; the woodwork, meanwhile, carries on the traditions of local carpenters and woodcarvers. All this results in a child-friendly environment, with an atmosphere that appears self-evident and a high comfort factor.

The church, situated on a hill in Viums, was consecrated in 1281 and is considered as the most beautiful shrine in the surroundings. The present church construction dates from 1500 and was build on the fundament of a church, the expansion of the tower happened in the 17th century.

The pharmacy museum housed in the Apotheke Peer is housed in one of the oldest private residences in Bressanone/Brixen. The display windows and the entrances with their dark metal outlines and steel plates were very carefully inserted into the plastered front of the ground floor. A passageway leads to the museum, where elegant display cabinets with dark metal frames are to be found under the gothic arches. The historical structure with its staircases leading to the upper floors was worked upon, and simple modern details were added, which are instantly recognizable. This has also occurred in the partly historically paneled exhibition rooms, in which 400 years of pharmaceutical history is presented in modern, carefully detailed glass display cases.

After 1200 bishop Konrad von Rodank established a house, in order to be able to offer travelers accommodation and care - therefore the name "Hospital Church". After numerous floodings only and alone the small, round place of worship kept until today.

The Mineral Museum is the private collection of Markus Klement (*10 April 1963, Brixen). With over 1,500 specimens on display from 50 different countries, it is one of the largest collections of such kind in the European Alps.

The castle was build in the 14th century. The lock was seat of the former court of Gufidaun. 1880 the well-known Germanist Ignaz Zingerle bought the expanded castle plant and today she is still inhabited by its descendants and cannot be visited.

Natz is the original seat of the ancient Natz parish from the Carolingian period. The curch was built in 1208 in the late Gothic style, commissioned by the Prince-Archbishop Konrad and consecrated in honor of St. Philip and St. Walburga. The tower was built from 1,400 granite blocks. The wooden sculptures that decorate the neo-Gothic main altar date back to 1470 and were influenced by the famous Artist Michael Pacher.

The University of Bolzano’s Faculty of Education was built in Bressanone/Brixen. At first glance, the rigid modern architecture may be jarring opposite the Bishop's Palace, but its urban development and architectural qualities evolve upon closer examination. The square building corresponds approximately to the dimensions of the Bishop's Palace, and Bressanone’s Lauben arcade motif recurs on the ground floor, underneath the three glazed upper floors of offices. For its structure, the inner courtyard takes up the alleyways and atriums of the Bressanone Old Town. The materials used for the exterior and interior are consistently reduced to glass and concrete. The cool impression of the interior spaces fits in with the intentionally quiet, almost monastic educational system.

Romanesque St. Michael’s church of the 11th century, Gothic choir loft and the „Weißer Turm“ (White Tower, 72 m) dating from the 15th century, hall church of the late Gothic around 1500, after 1750 redesigned in a baroque manner with frescoes by Josef Hautzinger, Troger’s apprentice from Vienna, altars of the Baroque, Classicism and Romanticism. Famous sculpture of Simon, the „Kreuzträger“.