Semi-Rural House

In the late 1930s, Bolzano, the capital of South Tyrol, was marked by large industrial plants and the fascist regime's immigration policy. To encourage the influx of Italian workers and alter the demographic balance between German and Italian speakers in formerly Austrian South Tyrol, numerous small houses with vegetable gardens for workers sprang up in the outskirts.

These were the so-called Semirurali houses, "semi-rural" (semi rurali) dwellings. Hundreds were built. One of the few surviving Semi-Rural Houses is located in the Via Bari road in the Don Bosco district. Most of these settlements were demolished in the 1980s to make way for larger residential complexes and apartment buildings. Even then, many former residents wished to document the emergence and development of the Semirurali district and preserve its memory.

Five years of research and studies by the working group "For a Museum in the Semirurali" formed the basis for this. Since 2015, the small Semi-Rural House (Semirurali-Haus) has housed an exhibition. On the ground floor, furnished with original furniture, an audio installation narrates daily life in the district. Upstairs, themed areas provide information with photos, films, maps, and models. Nearby, you'll also find the "Passage of Remembrance", commemorating the Nazi transit camp "Polizeiliches Durchgangslager Bozen", which operated from 1944 to 1945.

How to get there: The Semi-Rural House is easily accessible by public transport. City bus route 3 stops in the Via Bari road at the nearby Semirurali Park.