Once characteristic of the Val Sarentino/Sarntal Valley is the care spent on the villages and the landscape: it can be seen everywhere, from the well-tended farmsteads and paths to the flowers in the gardens and at the windows. Yet traditional and modern exist quite naturally alongside each other. Many of us, such as the folklorist Maria Kröss, make it their task to keep these customs alive, making each visit to the Val Sarentino/Sarntal Valley an event and an experience.
Bundschen
The small hamlet of Bundschen, with its little "Mary of the Good Way" church, lies around 4 km to the south of Sarentino/Sarnthein at 923 metres above sea level, and has 203 inhabitants. In the past, this small hamlet had a very special significance ...
With its 2,300 residents, Sarnthein is the commercial, political and social centre of what is, in terms of area, the largest municipality in South Tyrol. Safely and quickly accessible on a modern road from the provincial capital of Bolzano and yet in another world ...
From Astfeld, the Sarntal branches off into the Durnholz and Pensertal Valleys. Astfeld lies where the valley branches at 1,021 metres above sea level and is the newest neighbourhood in the Sarntal. In 1724 the houses in Astfeld were still included under the village of Nordheim ...
Reinswald, without doubt the sunniest mountain village in the Sarntal, is situated on the eastern slope of the Durnholz Valley at 1,492 metres. The neighbourhood of Reinswald, whose name is derived from the German Reginharteswald = Reinhartswald = Reinswald, was first mentioned ...
Durnholz at the head of the Durnholz Valley lies on the lake of the same name at 1,558 metres above sea level and, including the residents of the surrounding mountain farms, has 260 inhabitants. Alongside Aberstückl, Durnholz also has one of the smallest mountain schools ...
Aberstückl is the smallest village in the Sarntal and lies in the Pensertal Valley in a sunny location at 1,325 metres above sea level approx. 12 km from the main town of Sarnthein. The school and church of St. Bartholomäus and St. Ulrich are the centre of and main meeting places in the small mountain village with its 112 inhabitants ...
Weissenbach lies at 1,335 metres above sea level at the confluence of the Weissenbach and Talfer. Today this pretty little village has 331 inhabitants. The forefathers of the Sarntal Valley natives were very precise about the borders between neighbourhood ...
The neighbourhood of Pens is actually sub-divided into Ausserpens, Innerpens and Asten. The small, pretty village of Pens, with its splendid church of St. Peter and St. Paul lies at 1,458 metres above sea level at the lovely head of the Pensertal Valley where the panoramic pass road to the Penser Joch (2,211 m) winds its way upwards ...