Val Gardena - A crossroads of cultures
Val Gardena used to be part of a territory called "Ladinia", and the traces of its two thousand year old history are still visible. "Ladin" is a Rhaeto-roman language that is still spoken in the four Ladinian valleys of the Dolomites. Ladin originated from a mix of Latin, spoken by the Roman conquerors, and Celtic (Rhaetian), the language of the territory's first inhabitants. This particular historical circumstance makes of Val Gardena the emblematic meeting point of many European cultures.
Wood carving - a varied art
In addition to agriculture, arts and crafts were also well developed in Val Gardena by the Middle Ages, and the craftsmen of the valley had a fine reputation for their skills and diligence. They produced thick loden cloth, turned wooden bowls, and the women later made lace as well. At the beginning of the 17th century Christian Trebinger, his brother Bartlmä, and Melchior Vinazer established a craft that is today inseparable from the name Val Gardena – wood carving. Many of them made wooden bowls and other simple utensils, while the more talented tried their hand on more artistic items, mostly statues with a religious subject. In the course of the 17th century the Val Gardena wood carvers concentrated more on works of a figural type, while some of them produced caricatures, picture frames, ornaments, animals, nativity scene figurines and children’s toys. By the 18th century Val Gardena was a major centre of wood carving, and pedlars and merchants carried the carvings and the name of Val Gardena far and wide. Of the several thousand wood carvers in the valley, some developed into true artists, and in order to raise the general standard an art school was founded. Today wood carving is a modern industry and a genuine craft at the same time, producing individual, varied and authentic specimens of the art.
The strength of living art
Many people only attach value to the products of the past, while modern works are considered suspect or irrelevant. There are others who only have eyes for the big names, and have no time for the works of local artists. And Val Gardena has a living artistic tradition of which we are rightly proud. Art in Val Gardena boasts strength and creativity – and a need to interact. That is the key to living art, to enlivening art.
Val Gardena for mountains and valleys, woods and streams
The name Val Gardena is first recorded in a deed of gift from the year 999, when Duke Otto von Andechs made the Bishop of Freising a present of an area of woodland called "Forestum ad Gredine". Val Gardena – Gröden in German, and Gherdëina in Ladin – means "fence". Val Gardena, the heartland of the Ladin culture, is about thirteen miles long and runs more or less from west to east from the narrow entrance to the valley at Ponte Gardena to Selva at the end of the valley and up to Passo Gardena and Passo Sella. The lowest point is located at 470 m above sea-level, while the highest is Sassolungo (3,181 m). Val Gardena starts off as a gorge-like valley before it opens out after the defile at Pontives to form a high-level valley at Roncadizza, at about 1,100 m above sea-level. From Pontives the valley rises gradually to Ortisei (1,236 m) and continues to gain in height as far as S. Cristina (1,428 m) and Selva Gardena (1,563 m). These are the main centres of the three valley communities, of which Selva Gardena is the biggest in area. Roncadizza, Bulla and Oltretorrente – on the left bank of Rio Gardena – have been part of the adjoining community of Castelrotto since the Middle Ages. For the church, however, the valley is a single unit, the Deanery of Val Gardena.
Museum Gherdëina The Gherdëina
Local Heritage Museum is situated right in the centre of Ortisei and exhibits valuable collections related to the cultural and natural history of the Gardena Valley. Fascinating folk art and colourful wooden toys, sculptures and paintings of local artists, an extensive collection of fossils and minerals as well as archaeological finds from the valley and surroundings. A special attraction is the Lenten cloth of the Saint James’ Church above Ortisei. The multimedial exibition "Bierjun 1490. A secret Passion" shows the tiny sleeping room from the Bierjun farmhouse near Ortisei with very rare sanguine drowings from the Late Middle Ages. The delicate drowings on the wooden walls are shown through a "digital window". |
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