Skip to main content

"Great is the power of memory that dwells in places." (from Cicero)

Villa Schönblick (later the Hotel Regina, today the Hotel Adler Balance)

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. 

Marienheim (now the Hotel Maria)

Although the house and workshop which art distributor Franz Schmalzl de Ianesc built on Antonibo-den 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 St. Ulrich— complete with a swimming pool and a dining room which occupied an entire floor.

Villa Margherita

Stufan farm site (today Villa Margherita) is considered to be one of the oldest recorded settlement sites in St. Ulrich. The altar builder and manufacturer, Josef Rifesser Sr., built the twin farmhouses in 1872 and, in 1882, converted them into an art school for church interior decorations with its own sculpture and carpentry workshop. The business was one of the largest altar-building workshops in St. Ulrich around 1900.  His son, Josef Jr. (bera Sepl da Stufan), carried on with the company and opened a branch at the railway station in Brixen.

Haus Plan de Mureda

Plandemureda was built in 1834 by Jan Matie Moroder da Scurcià, a trader of fashion accessories living in Ancona, as a summer house. Starting in 1869, his sons, Alois and Franz, exported wooden toys to the whole of Europe under the name of 'Gebrüder Moroder'. There was a small warehouse (today 'Pension Sole') next door where producers delivered their wares. St. Ulrich primary school now occupies the spot behind the building where the 1849-built stable used to stand.

Haus Pana

Johann Baptist Purger started living in Haus Pana in 1832. He had the new road from Gröden to Waidbruck constructed in 1856, which played a significant role in the valley's economic boom. The building is on the original site of a farm at Kirchplatz that dates back in records to the 11th century and used to belong to the Lords of Freising. Its present appearance is an extension carried out in 1908 in the historical turn-of-the-century villa style.

Haus Neu Pedetliva

The several-storey building was built in 1890 by the sculptor and publisher Anton Sotriffer. He opened a store selling general groceries here in 1920/21 that also sold wood carvings and wooden toys sourced from different producers in the valley and partly painted himself. An innovative spirit, Sotriffer experimented with new materials and products during the crisis between the two world wars. Sotriffer's shop still exists today.

Villa Runggaldier (Rothaus, Engelsburg)

This turn-of-the-century villa, known as the 'red house', or 'angel's castle' because of its statue of St. Michael, was built by the altar builder and manufacturer Josef Runggaldier, living in the 'Blue House' next door, for his son Josef Jr. and was equipped with its own workshop on the ground floor. It is still used as an atelier today by sculptor Hermann-Josef Runggaldier, a great-grandson of the original constructor.

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

Villa Grohmann

The turn-of-the-century villa named after Paul Grohmann, the first to climb the Langkofel mountain, was built in 1906 by Konrad Pitscheider de Menza, a sculpture painter and gilder from St. Ulrich, on a plot of land belonging to Pitla Sotria farm. Pitscheider set up one of the most important workshops for the painting of sacred statues and other church decorations at the start of the 20th century on the ground floor. The construction is in its original state and is inhabited.

Villa Rifesser

Villa Rifesser, since 2006 a listed building that was influenced by late Historicism and features a verandah with Jugendstil elements, came about in 1890 thanks to the conversion of the old farmhouse by the altar builder and manufacturer, Josef Rifesser. His son, Josef Jr., carved four wooden busts of figures involved in the Tyrolean Rebellion of 1809 for the bay window. The workshop on the ground floor was used by the sculptor, Pepi Rifesser, a grandson of the builder, until the turn of the century.

Haus Tavella

Haus Tavella bears the name of the renowned sculptor, Franz Tavella, who came from Gadertal valley. He had a two-storey house with its own sculpture workshop built on the ground floor in 1890/91, where lots of young sculptors did their training, including Rudolf Moroder Lenért and Johann Baptist Moroder Lusenberg. In 1905, the sculptor Levije Antone (Luis Anton) Insam from St. Christina bought the house, where his son Luis carried out artistic work and trained young sculptors.