In 1875, Ferdinand Stuflesser founded a sculpture workshop at the Petlin farm, complete with a 15-metre-high workroom for altarpieces. In 1910, Ferdinand’s son Johann took over the business and expanded the market overseas.

Documents dating to 1288 reference an ‘Ortiseit Hof’ farm in the oldest part of St. Ulrich. After several changes of hands and names over the course of the years (Moritzen, Daverda, Adler) it was eventually established as an inn, and was pur-chased by Joseph Anton Senoner in 1810. The building re-mains under the ownership of the Senoner family to this day.

In around 1898, painter Christian Delago purchased a house beneath the art school, where he and his wife Josefina Schmalzl established a coffee house; by 1906, they had expanded it to the Dolomitenhotel Madonna. Delago also relocated his workshop to the hotel, which boasted 25 bedrooms, a garden, a veranda, and an art studio for guests.

Although the house and workshop which art distributor Franz Schmalzl de Ianesc built on Antoniboden in 1872/73 was unassuming in size and nature, by the turn of the century the Marienheim had grown to become the third-largest hotel in Ortisei— complete with a swimming pool and a dining room which occupied an entire floor.

Carefully made games with marbles from Val di Fassa also belonged to the items exported from Val Gardena. The game 'Kakelorum' worked like roulette, with the marble being thrown into the turban or crown of the figurine hollowed out like a helter-skelter. The marble then rolls down the spiral to land in the numbered dents in the plate at its base. 

Jester puppets in the form of people or animals were first produced in Oberammergau and also pop up in the Val Gardena range of the 19th century. Traditional jesters on sticks (in Ladin Cramaic) were manufactured until the First World War, and in modern form even until 1925. Bear jesters from Val Gardena were especially popular.

This cultural asset is part of the tour "Ortisei: a stroll through the village centre and its history".

Only a small selection of Val Gardena wooden toys were painted, and most of them were left unvarnished, known as 'white goods'. The simple mechanisms that the figures could be moved with made them fascinating objects. The body of the bucket carrier sways back and forth, while the scissors sharpener moves his feet to the turning of the wheels. Drumming monkeys, pecking hens, rocking horses, leaping clowns and lots more items were made.

Jointed dolls were the main item made by Gröden toy carvers from the 1840s until the First World War. The dolls were available in all sizes and the whole family was involved in their manufacture: arms, legs, face and body were produced separately, put together with wooden pegs or ball joints and the face was painted on. These jointed dolls were mainly sold in France and England.

This cultural asset is part of the tour "The turn-of-the-century economic boom in St. Ulrich: villas and workshops".

The carver's expertise is evident in the realistically rendered fur of this bear carved from Swiss pine wood. In order to safely guide the blade, the carver's thumb rested on the wood, while the handmade sweeping movements, which allowed the surface to be modelled quickly. Wood carvers from Val Gardena were considered to be extremely swift in their technique. 

Animal motifs like this reclining cow made from unvarnished arolla pine wood were carved mainly in Val di Funes during the 19th century and up to the First World War. A range of animals were depicted: exotic beasts from Noah's Ark, yet there were also examples of local animals, mostly characteristic of Alpine romanticism.