Renon

Renon: a High Plateau Between the Brenner Road and the Alps

At over a thousand metres above sea level, the plateau stretches wide and open between two deep valleys, the Isarco to the east and the Sarentino to the west. Stone farmhouses dot the pastures, the air carries a freshness that valley floors never quite reach, and the reddish earth pyramids rise from the eroded hillsides like sentinels that geology placed here without any human plan.

Renon, known in German as Ritten and in Ladin as Renon, sits at 1154 metres above sea level in the Province of Bolzano, Trentino-Alto Adige, and draws visitors with two contrasting appeals: the silence of a high alpine plateau that has kept its own pace for centuries, and a direct connection to Bolzano below that makes it unusually accessible for a mountain commune of this altitude.

From the Kaiserweg to the Sommerfrische: Renon Through the Centuries

The name itself carries age. The toponym is recorded as Ritano in documents from 871 to 875, then as Ritena in 1027, as Ritine in 1160, and as Rithen in 1179. Scholars trace the root to a Vulgar Latin form, retinone, probably of pre-Roman origin, suggesting that the plateau was named and inhabited long before any medieval record survives.

For several centuries during the Middle Ages, the plateau performed a strategic function that shaped its character. The gorge of the Val d’Isarco was difficult to traverse, and travellers long preferred the plateau route as an alternative. Before that infrastructure existed, travellers moving between Germany and Italy along the Brenner corridor often crossed the plateau instead. The route known as the Kaiserweg, or imperial road, descended from Colma, passed through Longomoso, and dropped back toward Rencio on the edge of Bolzano. The name reflected the reality: a long succession of Germanic kings and Holy Roman Emperors used this path, among them Conrad II and Frederick I. In 1179, Frederick I granted a significant market privilege at Longostagno, a document that confirms the economic weight the plateau already carried. In those same decades, a house of the Teutonic Order was established on the plateau, an institution whose presence reflects the strategic importance the territory held for powers beyond the local valley communities.

Later centuries brought a different kind of attention. From the 1840s onwards, the plateau became a destination for the aristocracy and bourgeoisie of Bolzano seeking relief from the summer heat of the valley floor. This phenomenon, known in German as Sommerfrische, the custom of spending summer weeks at altitude for the sake of cooler air, found one of its most articulate expressions here, spread in part through the writings of Ludwig Steub and Beda Weber. Sigmund Freud spent several holiday seasons on the plateau and a walking path departing from Collalbo, the municipal seat, at the locality of Schönblick and reaching Soprabolzano now bears his name. By the early twentieth century, the plateau had established a clear identity as a place of seasonal residence, a character it has not entirely shed.

Castles, Pyramids and the Narrow-Gauge Railway: the Territory Explained

The Earth Pyramids of Renon

Near Soprabolzano and at Longostagno, clusters of reddish earth pyramids rise from the eroded terrain in a formation that water and snow have sculpted over long periods. Each pinnacle is capped by a boulder that temporarily protects the column beneath from direct erosion. When the column narrows too far, the boulder falls and the pyramid disappears. The most significant groups stand in the valley of the Rio Rivellone and are visible from the cable car connecting Bolzano and Soprabolzano, giving travellers an aerial perspective on the geological process before they reach the plateau.

The Castles of the Plateau

The administrative territory of Renon holds several castle sites at different stages of survival. Castel Stein, located in the fraction of Collalbo in the locality of Siffiano, remains accessible. Castel Vanga stands as a private structure in the fraction that shares its name. At Auna di Sotto, only the ruins of Castel Zwingenstein survive; the lords of Zwingenstein administered the village from their castle until 1531, and their heraldic motif passed into the municipal coat of arms, formally recognised by provincial decree on 4 September 1967. Castel Roncolo, known as early as 1237, sits on a rock above the Talvera torrent at the entrance to the Val Sarentino, though it lies outside the municipal boundary and belongs to the territory of Bolzano.

The Narrow-Gauge Railway

Opened in 1907, the railway that once ran the full length from Bolzano to the plateau now operates only its upper section: a narrow-gauge line linking the fraction of Maria Assunta with Collalbo, calling at Soprabolzano, the lake of Costalovara, and Stella di Renon along the way. The lower Bolzano–Soprabolzano stretch was replaced in 1966 by the cable car, which was then completely rebuilt and reopened in May 2009. Travelling the surviving rail section is less about transport efficiency and more about understanding how the plateau relates to its own internal geography, fraction by fraction, at a pace suited to the altitude.

The Churches Across the Fractions

Because Renon is a comune sparso, a dispersed municipality with no single urban centre, its religious architecture is distributed across the fractions rather than concentrated in one place. The parish church of Santa Maria Assunta serves Longomoso, Santa Ottilia serves Longostagno, San Pietro Apostolo is the parish church of Vanga, San Giuseppe of Campodazzo, and San Leonardo of Auna di Sopra. The church of Santa Verena stands at the locality of Rotwand, and San Giovanni Battista sits on Monte San Giovanni. Together they trace the historical settlement pattern of the plateau across pasture and woodland.

The Walking Routes

The plateau carries a dense network of walking paths suited to different seasons and fitness levels. The path named after Sigmund Freud runs from Collalbo at Schönblick to Soprabolzano. The ruins of Castel Stein and Castel Zwingenstein serve as endpoints for other comfortable routes that combine historical interest with open views across the plateau. In winter, the frozen lake of Costalovara offers ice skating within a few hundred metres of the narrow-gauge railway stop.

A Plateau Pantry: Food and Production on the Renon Territory

The agricultural character of the plateau, its altitude and its cooler growing season, shapes what is produced and consumed here. The territory around Auna di Sotto, at approximately 900 metres along the road connecting Collalbo with Bolzano, is home to companies known well beyond the regional boundary: Loacker, the wafer and confectionery producer, alongside Finstral and Daunenstep, all based in the same fraction. Their presence underlines that the plateau is not only a landscape for leisure but a working economic territory with industrial output of genuine scale.

The traditions of alpine pasture that have long defined life at this altitude also connect Renon to a broader South Tyrolean food culture built around seasonal grazing and dairy production. The centuries-long dispute between the communities of Renon and Villandro over grazing rights on the adjacent Villandro plateau is a reminder that the management of these high pastures was never a minor matter but a source of real economic tension across generations.

Planning a Visit: Seasons, Access and Distances

The altitude of Renon means the plateau follows a seasonal rhythm distinct from the valley below. Summer brings the cool air that first drew visitors here in the nineteenth century and makes walking and cycling comfortable even in July and August. Autumn sharpens the light across the pastures and turns the edges of the woodland. Winter opens the skating rink at the Arena Ritten in Collalbo, where the ice hockey team Ritten Sport competes in the Alps Hockey League, and the lake of Costalovara freezes for open-air skating. The ski lifts serving the Corno del Renon at 2260 metres extend the winter season for those who want elevation beyond the plateau itself.

Access from Bolzano is straightforward. The cable car connects the city with Soprabolzano and the narrow-gauge railway continues from there to Collalbo, making it possible to reach the municipal seat without a car. The provincial road provides the road alternative. Visitors looking to explore the wider South Tyrolean plateau country may also find connections worth considering toward Barbiano to the south, or toward the wine-country settlements near Appiano sulla Strada del Vino. The city of Bolzano directly below provides the natural base for those combining the plateau with a wider itinerary through the Adige valley, including stops at Andriano or Bronzolo.

The commune counts around 8211 residents spread across fifteen fractions, with the municipal offices in Collalbo. German is the majority language, and most signs, menus and conversations operate in both German and Italian. The official municipal website at comune.renon.bz.it carries practical administrative information for longer stays or residency enquiries.

Departure	Distance	Time
Bolzano (cable car)	direct connection	approx. 12 min
Bolzano (by road)	approx. 18 km	approx. 30 min
Trento	approx. 65 km	approx. 1 h
Innsbruck	approx. 90 km	approx. 1 h 15 min
Verona	approx. 175 km	approx. 1 h 50 min