Villnöss amid the Geisler peaks, hiking trails and cultural landscape

Geisler backdrop in Puez-Odle Nature Park

Puez-Odle Nature Park covers more than 10,000 hectares. In Puez-Odle Nature Park, the gentle, green alpine meadows of Villnöss meet the pale, rugged towers of the Geisler and Peitlerkofel. Alpine meadows are open mountain grasslands; the striking rock towers create a distinctly different landscape accent. When you explore Villnöss, you will encounter both expansive green areas and steep, pale rock formations. For nature observation, Villnöss offers open mountain meadows and pale rock towers as two clearly contrasting landscape forms.

Hiking trails with their own character

The Adolf Munkel Trail runs directly beneath the vertical walls of the Geisler. The accessible Zans nature trail offers a relaxed way to discover ecological connections. The Mountain Farmers’ Trail leads through a gentle cultural landscape and offers panoramic views of the Dolomites. The Sunnseitenweg is one of the recommended hiking trails in Villnöss. The individual names help you plan your day and clearly choose your preferred focus: immediate rock faces, ecological connections, a gentle cultural landscape with views of the Dolomites or a recommended hiking trail. A panorama here means a wide-ranging view in all directions, while the Zans nature trail focuses on ecological connections. When planning your day, you can contrast the Adolf Munkel Trail’s focus on rock faces with the Zans Trail’s ecological theme and the Mountain Farmers’ Trail’s panoramic Dolomite views.

Visitor centre and insights into the landscape

The Puez-Odle Nature Park visitor centre is located in the centre of St. Magdalena in Villnöss. At the Puez-Odle Nature Park visitor centre, a walk-in aerial photograph allows visitors to view the nature park from a bird’s-eye perspective and gain detailed insights into the landscape. The location in St. Magdalena and the view of the landscape at the visitor centre are therefore two specific points of reference for finding your way around the valley.

Chapel of St John Nepomuk in Ranui

The Chapel of St John Nepomuk in Ranui was donated in 1744 by mine owner Michael von Jenner. St John Nepomuk in Ranui features altarpieces by Franz Sebald Unterberger from the Fiemme Valley. The year 1744 forms part of the chapel’s founding history, while the altarpieces represent a separate art-historical aspect of the building. A bus runs from Klausen or Brixen into the Villnöss Dolomite valley as far as the Ranui stop; the subsequent five-minute walk to the Chapel of St John Nepomuk is a separate part of the journey.

Slow Food Travel in Villnöss

Villnöss is South Tyrol’s first Slow Food Travel destination. Slow Food Travel experiences in Villnöss include baking bread in a wood-fired oven, observing cheese production, and identifying and processing herbs. The three examples range from breadmaking and cheese production to working with herbs. This gives you an insight into different artisanal and culinary topics that are explicitly associated with Slow Food Travel in Villnöss.

Further destinations: Mühlbach, Klausen, Natz-Schabs, Lüsen, Brixen, Meransen, Feldthurns, Rodeneck.

To the higher-level travel overview: Eisack Valley.