Museum Gherdëina - Val Gardena Museum

The Museum Gherdëina in Ortisei, as the Gherdeina Local Heritage Museum - "Museum Gröden" in German, "Museo della Val Gardena" in Italian - is called in Ladin language, has been focused since 1960 on the history of the Ladin speaking Dolomite area. The exhibition has since been expanded twice, and offers now seven sections: Wooden Toys, Wood Carvings, Paintings, Unique exhibits, Archeology, Dolomites and Luis Trenker. One of the main attractions is a collection of wooden toys of the valley, collected before 1940. Ancient rocking horses and puppets like gold dust take you on a journey back to the childhood of former times.

Three other sections are dedicated to local artistic painters of the 19th and 20th century, to unique exhibits such as the Lenten veil of the St. Jacob Church (1620/30) and the rare sanguines of Bierjun dating back to 1490 AD, as well as to archeologic findings of the Val Gardena valley. Beside you can admire four centuries of woodcarving in the Val Gardena valley. Exhibited are mundane sculptures of the 17th - 19th century, cribs and sacred statuaries. In the long winter period in this region, people used to pursue this tradition, which is world-famous by now. So in the neighbouring Santa Cristina you can also visit the world's largest hand-carved nativity scene.

Your museum visit can be concluded in the two sections dedicated to the Dolomites, and to Luis Trenker (1892 - 1990), famous mountain pioneer, actor and director born in the Val Gardena valley. And how to reach the Museum Gherdëina? It can be found in the Ladin House, the so-called Cësa di Ladins, in the centre of Ortisei. Outside the centre there are parking possibilities - a bus stop is located in the nearby Piazza San Antonio square.