Val Passiria Painters’ House

In San Martino in Passiria there is a small house, which is beautifully decorated, but otherwise not very different from the other old houses in the Val Passiria valley. And yet it is something very special: For more than one century, from 1719 to 1845, the Painters' House was home to the Baroque Passiria Art School. Today the house is still decorated with three magnificent frescos depicting St. Martin, St. George and Our Lady with the rosary.

In the Painters' House - "Malerhaus Passeier" in German, "Casa dei Pittori" in Italian - the art of the "Nazarenes" was taught. The artists of this romantic-religious direction took the old Italian and German masters as their model and influenced the art of the entire Romantic period. Since many Gothic churches were converted into Baroque buildings at that time, the Passiria Art School had many commissions. The artists themselves were active throughout Tyrol, also the career of Josef Haller (1737-1773), one of the most famous rococo painters of Tyrol, started here.

Works of this painting school can still be found today on the Turmhaus on the village square of San Martino and in the parish church, but also in the churches of Ridanna in the South Tyrolean Upper Valle Isarco and in Neustift in the North Tyrolean Stubaital. And how to reach the house? It is located above the centre of San Martino and can be reached from there in a few minutes on foot. A car park is located in the centre of the village, the bus line 240 takes visitors from Merano to the house in 40 minutes. By foot, the panoramic hike in the Val Passiria valley leads past San Martino.