Main Sights
Its mediaeval city centre, Gothic and Romanesque churches and bilingual signage give it a unique flavour of a city at the crossroads of Italian and Austrian cultures. This and its natural and cultural attractions make it a popular tourist destination.
Among the major monuments and sights are:
- Walther Square, with a statue of Walther von der Vogelweide, a German minstrel (minnesinger)
- the Lauben, a mile-long street in the city centre with mediaeval arcades along its entire course, now housing countless high-street shops
- the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology, which has the mummy of Ötzi the Iceman
- the Gothic Cathedral, started in 1184, expanded in the 14th century by architects Martin and Peter Schiche (completed in 1382)
- the old parish church of Gries, with an altarpiece by Michael Pacher
- the benedictine monastery of Muri-Gries, with baroque paintings by Martin Knoller
- various castles, including Castle Maretsch, Runkelstein Castle and Firmian/Sigmundskron Castle
- Victory Monument, a triumphal arch built on the order of Benito Mussolini in 1928
- Messner Mountain Museum of Reinhold Messner
For more historical and geographical information see South Tyrol.
Read more about this topic: Bolzano
Famous quotes containing the words main and/or sights:
“Men enter by force, drawn back like Jonah
into their fleshy mothers.
A woman is her mother.
That’s the main thing.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“Television hangs on the questionable theory that whatever happens anywhere should be sensed everywhere. If everyone is going to be able to see everything, in the long run all sights may lose whatever rarity value they once possessed, and it may well turn out that people, being able to see and hear practically everything, will be specially interested in almost nothing.”
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