Stern: Discover the art trail, churches and mountain landscape

Art in the open air

The Tru di artisć is an open-air gallery that opened in summer 2011. As an artists' trail, it presents installations featuring verses in the Ladin language. This means that the focus is not only on the landscape, but also on the encounter with contemporary art and a language rooted in the region. The trail is approximately 3.5 km long and closed to motorised traffic. This clear spatial arrangement creates a suitable setting if you prefer to discover art in open terrain rather than in an enclosed exhibition space.

La Villa between nature parks and mountain ranges

La Villa is surrounded by the Puez-Odle Nature Park and the Fanes-Sennes-Prags Nature Park. At the same time, the village lies at the foot of the Fanes-Santa-Croce group. This gives your travel planning several different perspectives on the same landscape: nature park areas, high-alpine mountain scenery and paths leading to culturally or religiously significant destinations. An alpine hiking route starts in La Villa and crosses the eastern part of the Puez-Odle Nature Park.

La Villa also has hiking and pilgrimage routes leading to the Santa Croce Sanctuary near the Armentara meadows. The term pilgrimage route refers to the religious character of this connection, while the hiking trails open up another way of exploring the area. Those who want to relate nature, physical activity and sacred destinations when choosing their excursions will find various themes here without having to combine them into a single experience.

Church art and historic architecture

The present-day parish church of Our Lady in La Villa was consecrated in 1516. Inside are paintings by the Pescoller artists, created in 1897 and 1949. The side altars also deserve close attention: they feature a distinctive Tuscan-Gothic style. Thus, different art-historical traces come together in the parish church, and they can be traced back over several centuries.

Another striking building is Ciastel Colz. It is also known by the names Castello di Colz and Residenza Rubatsch. The complex includes four towers, two rectangular and two round, as well as a surrounding wall and numerous loopholes. Ciastel Colz is privately owned and is not open to visitors. This restriction is important for orientation on site: the building can be appreciated as an architectural destination, but it is not possible to visit the interior.

Winter orientation

Winter sports are also among the themes associated with La Villa. The Piz La Ila gondola lift connects La Villa with the northern part of the ski area. Alpine Ski World Cup competitions have been held on the Gran Risa downhill course since 1985. Together with its location at the foot of the Fanes-Santa-Croce group, this creates a village setting in which natural surroundings, mountain sports and culture stand side by side. You can therefore focus on different priorities when deciding on your trip: the artists' trail and its Ladin verses, the parish church with its interior paintings, historic architecture, or the paths and winter sports themes of the mountain landscape.

Further destinations for your planning

For further orientation, you can also view Percha, Lappach, Gsies, Sand In Taufers, Vintl, Rasen-Antholz, Bruneck and Enneberg.

For the higher-level travel overview: Pustertal.