Rio di Pusteria

The Italian name of Rio di Pusteria suggests the presence of a watercourse, the German one, Mühlbach, recalls the presence of mills (Mühlen): it is therefore easy to understand the historical vocation of this town, which rises at the beginning of the Pusteria Valley, right where a stream, the Rio Valles, enters the Rienza. The mighty Chiusa that rises upstream of Rio, a kind of fortified customs house, recalls that this used to be a rather restless borderland. At one time, the town was also equipped with defensive walls, of which the robust Freienthurn, a tower-house of 13th-century origin that was later incorporated into a palace called Freienthurn Castle, itself converted into a convent in the 19th century, was part. In the centre, the reference point is the Church of St. Helena, of Romanesque origins, with a late 1400s fresco by Friedrich Pacher depicting the Finding of the Cross. At least two hamlets around the village are worth visiting. The nearest is Maranza, a holiday resort at about 1,400 metres above sea level, which can also be reached by cable car or car: on the slopes of the Cuzzo or Gitschberg mountain, there are beautiful hiking trails and, in winter, more than 50 kilometres of ski slopes; in the central part of the resort, you can visit the St. Jakob church, an example of Tyrolean rococo architecture. The other hamlet is Valles, which lends its name to the beautiful valley that separates from Rio di Pusteria to the northwest, in turn connected to the Gitschberg area. Above Valles, following a themed trail for 3 kilometres (which celebrates local dairy production), you come to the Malga Fane (1739 metres), one of the most famous and characteristic mountain huts in South Tyrol, surrounded by the Fundres mountains. Founded in the Middle Ages as a lazaretto, the Malga Fane is a picturesque nucleus of some thirty traditional alpine pasture buildings, including huts, refuges and barns, as well as a small church, from where long panoramic trails start towards Lake Selvaggio and Picco della Croce, at 2532 and 3132 metres respectively.