Bolzano: the city of Christmas markets

Hi Haveyoubeenhere! I finally visited Bolzano, a city I've always wanted to see this city very famous for its "Christmas markets"... Let's go and discover it together :)

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INTRODUCTION

Over the Christmas holidays, I went to visit my girlfriend in Trentino and we did a few visits to some very beautiful places, the first thing I wanted to see is Bolzano.
I've always heard of this city but had never been there, very famous for the Christmas Markets and for being a city of great architectural significance.

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THE CITY

The city is really beautiful, clean and cared for in every detail, it will be that in this particular time of year there is a lot of tourism due precisely to the Christmas markets.
I tried to take some pictures of the most beautiful sights I've encountered, although I recommend you go and visit the city to see for yourself how beautiful and typical it is.

There are many bakeries that offer local specialties such as brezzels and bread, if you happen to be in these parts you should definitely try the delicious local specialties, I believe in fact that the food is something really very good.
The cuisine of this city has a lot of German influence given the proximity and the high amount of German population.

I really like details, and Bolzano is full of them, for example this little pink loggia is wonderful, it's not very fashionable to do this kind of construction anymore. but they remind of a really rich and luxuriant antiquity, a city where beauty reigns supreme.

Bolzano has the main characteristic of being a city where three linguistic groups coexist: Italian, German and Ladin, although largely a minority. At the last population census, the majority of the population declared themselves as belonging to the Italian linguistic group (74%), those who declared themselves as belonging to the German linguistic group reached 25.5%, while those who declared themselves as belonging to the Ladin group were 0.68%. Bolzano is therefore one of the five municipalities (Bolzano, Bronzolo, Laives, Salorno, and Vadena) in South Tyrol where the majority of the population is Italian-speaking, and it is the one with the highest percentage of Italian speakers and an increase over the previous census of 2001 (73.00%).

Italian speakers are scattered throughout all the city's districts, although they are in the minority in some historic districts (Old Town, Rhenish, Gries) and a minority (mostly from Trentino) were already present in the city before the city was annexed by Italy. According to the 1890 census, Italians were about 15% of the population of Bolzano[33].The 1910 census recorded a decline in Italian or Ladino speakers, as they had fallen in the municipality of Bolzano, including Dodiciville (excluding the municipality of Gries) to 6.43% (3.74% Bolzano; 10.27% Dodiciville). The majority of Italian speakers not born in Bolzano (above all the elderly and immigrants from Southern Italy) come (as of 31.12.2005) from Veneto (8.20%), Trentino (5.67%) and Calabria (2.47%) and are decreasing, while immigrations from regions such as Campania, Puglia and Sicily are increasing. However, 51.23% (a decrease from the previous year) were born in Bolzano. The Italian speakers of Bolzano do not have their own regional dialect, although there is a Veneto-Trentine component in the Italian language spoken in Bolzano. Many speak the idiom of their region of origin (especially Veneto and Trentino). Some regional communities have their own associations to maintain the culture of origin (Club Rodigino, Fogolâr Furlan, Circolo Sardo).

German speakers are in the majority in the historic districts and in Aslago and are quite numerous in the popular district Europa in Don Bosco. The German-speaking population also lives in large numbers in the countryside of Bolzano. There are also numerous German-speaking citizens living in Bolzano. Before the annexation of Bolzano to Italy and before Italianization, Bolzano was an almost entirely German-speaking city (84.99% in 1890).

The Ladin community of Bolzano is the most diverse in South Tyrol and is composed of Val Gardena, Badia, Fassa, Ampezzo, and Friuli (probably also non-German, who have declared themselves Ladin but are not recognized as such). The declared Ladin language group does not exceed 0.71% and is in fact surpassed by the more numerous immigrant communities. In Bolzano there are the Ladin Community (Comunanza Ladina a Bulsan), the Ladin Council established by the City of Bolzano, the Provincial Department for Ladin Culture and the Ladin Pedagogical Institute.

In Bolzano there is also the Sinti minority, which consists of about 180 people living mainly in the camps on the outskirts of the city. The Sinti are Italian citizens who have lived in South Tyrol for many generations and there is a Romansh association (Nevo Drom). In recent years, about 130 Roma from the former Yugoslavia have joined them.

Some views of the city are really spectacular, the buildings that are in the historic center, are well maintained, such as this semi-circular, very reminiscent of the architecture of the first two decades of the 900.

This is the city market, very nice and stocked, it's not the Christmas markets though, we see those at the end of the post.

This is Luna, my dog, she is a Shiba Inu, very curious and she also visited Bolzano for her first time.

A fantastic view from the river just before the city center, around the river there are numerous parks and nature reserves, really great.

This is the landscape you see as soon as you step outside the city walls, I really like the fact that if you look past the buildings you are always surrounded by beautiful snowy mountains.

More views of the city, we are still outside the historic center in which there are Christmas markets, but I must say I really like it.

One thing you have to be very careful about in Bolzano are the parking lots, in fact the free ones are all reserved for residents, tourists have to pay and the prices are as high as you are towards the city center.
I suggest you to park a little outside the city walls, because a nice walk to the center is very pleasant.

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BOLZANO MAIN CATHEDRAL

The Bolzano Cathedral, also known as the Church of Santa Maria Assunta (in German Dom Maria Himmelfahrt, Bozner Dom or also Propsteipfarrkirche Bozen), is the main place of worship in the city of Bolzano.

The foundations of the oldest church date back to the 4th century and it was probably consecrated to St. Vigilius, since many early Christian churches in the surroundings were consecrated to him. The building had a rectangular floor plan, was 38 meters long and 14 meters wide and was divided into three rooms by partition walls. The side walls of the church were provided with 8 buttresses. The basilica had been built according to the oriental constructive typology, diffused in the zone of the Noricum, Roman province corresponding approximately to the present Austria, and in the zone of Aquileia, to which the basilica in matter made reference. The basilica had an atrium in the western part, where perhaps a stoup was placed, and had a presbyterial bench. It was a circular construction placed in the area of the altar where the priests could take place.

Since 2010 the cathedral has had a special bell carillon (Glockenspiel), the work of the artist Ivo Radakovich of Egna, made by the well-known Grassmayr foundry in Innsbruck. It consists of 25 small to medium-sized bells in the chromatic scale of F4 which play different melodies every day at 11:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.

As you can see it is not possible to take a picture of the whole basilica because it is surrounded by many buildings, in front of it there are Christmas markets and therefore this view is only partial.

In 2007, the Cathedral Museum (Dommuseum or Domschatzkammer Bozen) was set up in the cathedral's prepositura to the south of the church. It displays the cathedral's treasures and offers a historical and educational tour of the city's ecclesiastical history.

The sacred artworks found inside the cathedral are pricelessly beautiful, of course everything is maintained perfectly.

In the external part of the church, the main portal is supported by two animal figures, they look like two lions, a really suggestive architectural choice.

I must say that I really liked this church, it is not too lavish but at the same time is rich in details and ornaments perfectly preserved over time, the result of numerous restorations to which it has been subjected during its history, really a rare jewel.

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CHRISTMAS MARKETS

And now some fun at the Christmas markets, I've always wanted to see them and finally got to.

As soon as you enter there is a beautiful large nativity scene with all the figures that represent Christmas.

The markets collect so many beautiful Christmas things, but especially many sweet and savory culinary specialties, it is really impossible to resist.

As soon as we entered we immediately tasted a sandwich with hot speck and melted cheese, really delicious!

Then wandering around the market you can find various points of sale where you can buy toys, Christmas decorations and many other specialties.

The market isn't very big, from what I had heard about it I expected it to be a bit bigger, but anyway it's very particular and well managed, I'm happy to have been there.

For lunch we tried a typical dish of this area, polenta with stew (goulash) very good.

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CONCLUSION

Bolzano is really a beautiful city, I'm glad I visited, especially in a particular period like this.

Maybe I expected the Christmas markets to be a little bigger, but I was happy to have been there.
I recommend everyone to see Bolzano, especially those who love Christmas.

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The information on statistics and historical information of the city I read on Wikipedia, in the page dedicated to the city of Bolzano.

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