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.
Luis Trenker is one of Val Gardena’s most renowned locals. Since 1992, he has been seated on the promenade that bears his name in the form of a bronze sculpture created by Hermann Josef Runggaldier.
In the 1930s Trenker enjoyed career as an actor and director which remains critically acclaimed to this day and, in the post-war years, went on to promote the development of tourism through radio and TV narrations of his memoirs.
Val Gardena owes its first valley road, which ran from Ponte Gardena to Ortisei and opened in 1856, to Johann Baptist Purger, merchant and mayor of Ortisei. In creating a link between the valley with the wider world, the road brought new opportunities for the sale of Val Gardena products and fostered the emergent tourism industry of the era.
In commemoration of Purger’s prescience and achievement, a wooden statue was erected on the Purger bridge at the entrance to the village in 1921. In the road’s centenary year, this statue was replaced with a bronze sculpture.
In 1907, altar-maker Josef Höglinger had the Villa Schönblick built beneath the Plajes Hof farm. The villa housed a workshop, rooms for visiting artisans, and a small guesthouse.
In 1926, additional rooms were built in an annex; Höglinger also relocated his workshop to the new premises, replacing its predecessor with a dining room. The Villa Schönblick thus became the Hotel Regina, run by the Höglinger family until its sale and demolition in 2008, after which it was replaced by the Hotel Adler Balance.
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.
The forebear of the Hotel Stetteneck was a Tyrolean Art Nouveau style building, constructed by Johann Sanoner on the site of the Janon Hof barn in 1913. The building housed apartments, a butcher’s shop, and, for some time, the Imperial and Royal Post Office.
In 1938, the Stetteneck became an annex of the Hotel Adler, while in the Second World War, it was served as the only Dolomite air raid shelter. In 1962, the Stetteneck became a guesthouse and, in 1972, a fully-fledged hotel which is still run as a family business to this day.
Today’s Hotel Cavallino Bianco is one of the oldest hotels in the valley, and has been welcoming travellers since the far-back 16th century. The hotel is first mentioned by the name of “Weisses Rössl” in the mid-19th century, when it was purchased by Johann Peter Lardschneider.
Today’s Hotel Angelo Engel on the old valley road has always been a hotel, and its roots date back to the 16th century. Also known as Dëur Dessot, the Beché or the Unteruhrwirt, it is one of the oldest hotels in the village.
In 1896, extensive renovations included the addition of a dining room, veranda and garden. The Demetz family took over in 1913, and upgraded it to hotel status in 1950. The restaurant remained open for many years until the renovations of 2004, when it closed its doors for the last time.
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.