Sondalo

 

Rich with quartz in the heart of the Stelvio National Park, Sondalo is a spectacular place to reconnect with nature.

Thanks to its invigoratingly clean air, the variety of its unspoiled landscape, and its favourable position – high enough to escape the heat and sheltered from the wind – Sondalo has long been championed for its curative properties.

Off the beaten track, it is a place suited to those who like the simple things in life – like nature, or minerals and gemstones. Sondalo is where you’ll find some of Europe’s most important underground quartz mines

Out of all the hiking possibilities, Val di Rezzalo stands out. With its spectacular biodiversity and eye-catching rural architecture, it represents an open-air museum of the simplest kind – after leaving the village at the top of the road behind you, you head into the valley where experience and escape are guaranteed all year round.

WHAT TO SEE IN SONDALO

The former sanatorium village, today the E. Morelli Hospital, was once the largest sanatorium in Europe, a haven for tuberculosis sufferers. Highly contagious, such high-altitude clinics – sanatoria – were relied upon before the arrival of antibiotics to isolate and help cure patients while preventing further infections. Down the road in Sondalo’s old town, admire the rustic homes and churches with valuable pieces of art and frescoes attributed to the painter Giovannino da Sondalo.

A walk around the mountainside town reveals impressive architecture – particularly the sanatorium village as well as the ‘Liberty’ at the former sanatorium Pineta di Sortenna, now a religious nursing home.

Today, Sondalo is also home to a modern multi-use events space and a thriving cultural calendar featuring events, guided tours, and conferences.