San Candido, a locality which becomes soul place

Travel is the best thing to do during own life: if you want to invest money and time in something of unforgettable, exciting, important, you have to opt for a holiday far from home, where you can discover a new interesting location, finding a hidden part of your own soul.

Because traveling isn’t simply moving from a place to another one, but it is an experience which allows you to grow and learn, visiting new cities and meeting different cultures and traditions.

Every trip conveys a unique emotion, related to what the site inspires, and you could collect special moments that you will remember forever.

Every journey brings with it a precious, unrepeatable piece of life that identifies itself with a period spent in perfect context.

However, some places create feelings that need to be renewed over the years. Keeping this special atmosphere alive is like a sacred, regenerating ritual, which makes these places unusual, and the only solution is to go there constantly.

San Candido is one of them: it may seem like a simple mountain village hidden among the Dolomites, but both itself and its surroundings have the power to enchant tourists without even realizing it.

A panoramic view of San Candido (Credit Author)

Let’s detect why.

San Candido, a naturalistic and historical jewel in Pustertal Valley

San Candido (Innichen in German), in the Italian province of Bolzano, is probably one of the most thought-provoking places in the world.

This is a kind of parallel dimension, where it is impossible not to get excited whenever you find refuge in its gracious city center, just eight kilometers from the Austrian border.

This mountain village manages to evoke multi-sensory sensations that involve every part of the body: a fascinating mixture of scent, taste, sound, and image overwhelms the person suspended in it while the soul enjoys this miracle.

If you take the train to San Candido, close to the railway line, there are the Holy Sepulcher and Altötting Chapels: they were built in 1653 when the innkeeper Georg Paprion decided to reproduce the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem and the Chapel of the Graces in Altötting. participates in popular devotion, Baroque influences, and Christian architecture.

The town center begins nearby with the most important and lively pedestrian street named Peter Paul Rainer Strasse, where many shops sell typical gastronomic products such as honey, apple juice, black bread with seeds.

From this point in the village, the two bell towers that mark the skyline of San Candido are the most beautiful religious buildings in South Tyrol, St. They belong to the St. Michael Parish Church and the Innichen Abbey Church.

St. Michael’s Parish Church is located in the homonym main square: it has a Romanesque origin, but since 1735 numerous ornaments already anticipate Rococo-style exuberance, adapting to be a triumph of the Baroque; hence this church can be considered one of the highest expressions of the Tyrolean Baroque period.

The vault is decorated with magnificent frescoes by Christoph Anton Mayr, while the angel sculptures placed in the niches were made by local sculptors in 1740.

The only original part of the church is the cylindrical tower bell with a typical onion-shaped dome.

Another architectural wonder in San Candido is the Monastery Church, which is considered the best Romanesque monument in South Tyrol.

In 769, Duke of Bayern III. Founded at the request of Tassilo, in the Benedictine district, it has been built since 1043 and has become a university church.

The large building has a classical Romanesque structure divided into three naves, and its interior preserves various works of art; Among them, the majestic wooden crucifix, made by an artist from the High Pustertal Valley in the middle of the XIII century, stands on the high altar.

The iconic tower bells of San Candido (Credit: Author)

San Candido isn’t history and art only: walking across its streets, among cozy private gardens and inviting smells of homemade soups and mountain pine, you can feel peace and authentic nature, the sensation to be in a perfect small world, as protective as own home, as stimulating as curiosity and the desire for freedom and adventure.

San Candido is not just history and art: as you walk through its streets, between cozy private gardens and the inviting scents of homemade soups and mountain pine, you can feel the tranquility and authentic nature, the feeling of being in a perfect little world, as protective as your home. A home that stimulates curiosity and desire for freedom and adventure.

If you look beyond the buildings in the square of St. Michael, you can see the amazing Baranci fortress (“enrosadira”, scattered all over the Dolomites), a mountain group belonging to the Sesto Dolomites that can have reddish hues thanks to the sunset lights.

The villagers asked the giant to help them build the Monastery, thereby helping to move the rocks used in the construction of the church; In return, he asked for a calf, some beans, and a barrel of wine every day.

However, when the building was finished, the giant did not stop asking people for food and they could no longer satisfy him, so the residents decided to kill Haunold and threw him into a large hole.

It is said that the spirit of the giant still wanders around the Barancı castle and his rib was preserved at the entrance of the collegiate church to remember the aid he made in the construction of the monastery.

In the south of the village, on a hill and close to the path to Sesto (Sexten in German), there is a striking, wide playground, with many slides, swings and a rare children’s play pulley, immersed in a luxuriant larch forest.

The playground on the hill (Credit: Author)

San Candido is in the heart of the Pustertal Valley, a pure masterpiece of nature, perhaps the most spectacular part of the Italian Dolomites, a proud representative of this tiny town, is a rare treasure that is impossible to confuse with other landscapes.

This town has unique features that memorize themselves as a useful addiction, so you should visit this place further and preserve in your soul some of the most amazing human experiences worth hiding.