Bolzano

A cultural and historical trip through the old city.

The trip starts at the central situated Piazza Walther, it was built in 1808 by the emperor Maximillian of Bavaria and was called the Maxinillian place in those days.

Since 1901 the place is called Waltherplatz. In the middle of this place you can find a statue of Walther von der Vogelweide, the famous German poet and minnesingers. The place is bordered by beautiful buildings in neo classical and modern style.

Very beautiful is the Gothic dome on the south- west side of the place. The formal city church, nowadays episcopate church, came into being in 1280 and was finished in the first decades of 15th century. Worth seeing are the roman portal, the window rosette, the 65 m high tower made of sand stone, the exposed frescos, the late gothic pulpit and the baroque altar made of coloured marble.

On the west side of the dome lays the “Dominikanerplatz” with the church of the same name and the cloisters beside. The frescos at the inside come from the Giotto school in Padua and have a great art importance. In the cloisters you can admire frescos of Pacher.

Starting from the Dominikanerplatz, you reach over the Goethestraße the colourful vegetal & fruit market with the fountain of Neptune. On the north side of the fruit market are the Fransiskaner church and the cloisters worth seeing. The frescos and the altar of Hans Klockner (1500) belong to the most beautiful gothic art pieces in the churches of Bozen.

Returning from the fruit market, at your right starts the Museumsstraße, at the end of this street you can find the archaeological museum with its famous glazier mummy found in the Ötztaler mountains, the mummy called “Ötzi” In the street crossing the Museumstraße, the Sparkassestraße, is the worth seeing city museum. At the fruit market also starts the Laubengasse, the most visited shopping mile in Bozen and the heart of trade and traditional, elegant and sophisticated shop windows. The facades have nice oriels and testimony of the richness of old trade making families in Bozen.

Starting from this Laubengasse, you reach at your right the Kornplatz, where once upon a time was the cereal market and where you can find picturesque buildings as the “Waaghaus”(1634), it was the official balance till 1780. Once upon a time, the castle of Meinhard II from Tirol and the Episcopate castle stood on the place of the Kornplatz, together with the Andreas church before they were destroyed, the church was tore down in 1785. So it is supposed that this part of the city is the oldest one. Picturesque are the streets around the Laubengasse.

Who still has the desire and the time to see more after this visit, can make another excursion to Gries, a suburb of Bozen in the direction of Meran. Here you can visit the collegiate church, which is fit out with frescos of the famous Tirol painter Martin Knoller. The old church of Gries on the north side of the place, possesses two extraordinary artefacts: The altar from Michael Pacher (1471-75) and the roman wooden cross of the 13^th century.

A journey to Bozen is certainly worth wile and perhaps you can combine it with a small shopping tour in the bright and cheerful atmosphere of Bozen.