Gröden owes its first valley road, which ran from Waidbruck to St. Ulrich and opened in 1856, to Johann Baptist Purger, merchant and mayor of St. Ulrich. In creating a link between the valley with the wider world, the road brough new opportunities for the sale of Gröden 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. 

The former stable at Panahof farm was extended by Johann Baptist Purger in 1854 for the purpose of packaging toys and, at a later date, altars, for export. A bridge over the Annabach stream was built at the same time to ease transport by sledge. Today, the packaging house is home to an eatery with a western façade consisting of porphyry stone blocks like the bridge, while its foundations are made of solid Gröden sandstone.

On the spot of the cultural centre there was once a multi-storey building constructed in 1854 in urban style by the manufacturer, Johann Baptist Purger, along with some council offices and doctor's surgery. It also served as a temporary warehouse for the toy manufacturer Anton Sotriffer. Both buildings influenced the character of Kirchplatz, until, in 1969, they had to make way for a congress hall for the 1970 Winter Olympics built at the turn of the century and bearing the name 'Kulturhaus Luis Trenker'.

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.