Day 20 – Back To Old Town Brixen

Feb 24, 2023

Today’s Adventure

Friday, February 24, would be our last full day in Italy for this trip. We’d be lying if we said that we weren’t just a bit tired after over three weeks of constant adventures (and walking over 100 miles) – that’s why we opted to take things somewhat easier than normal. We had wanted to spend a little time in Brixen during our trip so this was the perfect opportunity. We had stayed in Brixen for two weeks back in October and know the town fairly well.

The lovely and historic city of Brixen, also known as Bressanone in Italian, is located at the confluence of the Isarco and Rienz Rivers, about twenty-five miles northeast of Bolzano. It’s about that same distance south of the Brenner Pass, i.e. the Austrian border. The city sits on the floor of the Val Isarco at roughly 1,800 feet above sea level. It’s a dramatic location with large mountains located immediately to both the east and west.

A population of about 23,000 makes Brixen the third largest city in the Südtirol, well behind the decidedly more urban capital city of Bolzano (pop. 108,000) and the elegant spa town of Merano (pop. 41,000). Over 70% of the residents in Brixen claim German as their primary language with 25% claiming Italian and the small remainder claiming Ladin. Welcome to the tri-lingual Südtirol!

With a named settlement on record as far back as 901 AD, Brixen is the oldest town in the province. At its heart it remains a medieval town with the historic district surrounded by walls dating back to the end of the first millenium. Inside those walls are narrow streets, elegant shopping arcades, sacred buildings, and numerous museums all standing side-by-side with enough shops, cafes, and high-end restaurants to keep both locals and tourists amused.

As you might guess one of the highlights of Brixen is the main cathedral, known as Dom zu Brixen in German or Duomo di Bressanone in Italian. The cathedral has a long history dating back to 980 AD but that fire-prone wooden structure was eventually re-built with stone around the year 1200 in the Romanesque style. That church was subsequently replaced with the current and quite extravagant Baroque structure between 1745 and 1754. No fewer than 33 types of marble were used in the construction of this ‘new’ church.

We started this adventure with a relatively short bus ride down the hill from Castelrotto. From the Bahnhof we wandered along our well-known route into the old town area of Brixen while we re-acquainted ourselves with the familiar landmarks.

Speaking of landmarks, for lunch we decided to visit the Kutscherhof. This character-filled wirtshaus or pizzeria is housed on a building that dates back to the early 17th century. The building originally served as the carriage shed and horse stables for the adjoining Hofburg or prince’s residence – the high arched doorways necessary for the carriages are still clearly seen throughout the ground floor. In spite of the long and interesting history the Kutscherhof has only been used as a restaurant since 2007. This was our third visit, having eaten there twice before during our fall trip – once outside in the Biergarten and once in the main dining hall. Today because of the weather we opted to eat indoors. Cindy ordered a pizza with ham, basil, and sun-dried tomatoes finished with a fresh burrata. Stuart ordered a pizza with black olives and anchovies. Both were most excellent, especially with our new-found favorite pizza condiment, chili-infused olive oil.

After lunch we continued our stroll through the old town, especially the shopping arcades, before finding ourselves on the Piazza del Duomo, the main cathedral square. For a relatively small city the Brixen Cathedral is quite impressive with an incredibly ornate Baroque interior – as usual we took a stroll through the interior to admire the architecture and the ornate detailing. It’s fascinating to imagine how many people have worshipped there over the centuries and how they would have reacted to the same features.

On the far side of the Piazza del Duomo we inevitably found ourselves outside of the Millenium restaurant, a frequent stop during our fall trip to the area. This mostly outdoor cafe on the square features a walk-up window for hand-dipped gelato, so we figured that would be an appropriate way to say ‘arrivederci’ for this visit to Brixen.

For Innichen’s main page click here.

For Castelrotto’s main page click here.

For the entire trip’s main page click here.