Anywhere Italy
00 Meran
Stemma di Meran

Trentino-South Tyrol · Bolzano

Meran

A Habsburg spa city on the Passer river, palm-lined promenades below 3,000-metre peaks and the gardens where Empress Sissi spent her winters.

Best time
Apr–Oct
By car
29 min from Bolzano
By train
Station in the comune
Population
41,071

Known for

  • SISSI'S SPA

    Empress Elisabeth wintered here from 1870, drawing Kafka, Rilke and Richard Strauss and turning Merano into a late-Habsburg health resort.

  • TRAUTTMANSDORFF GARDENS

    Twelve hectares of botanical gardens around the castle where Sissi stayed, with eighty different landscapes and the Touriseum museum of tourism.

  • MERANO WINEFESTIVAL

    International wine and spirits gathering at the Kurhaus each November since 1992, the most important wine event in the Italian Alps.

When to visit

Best · Apr–Oct

  • J9°
  • F12°
  • M14°
  • A17°
  • M21°
  • J26°
  • J28°
  • A28°
  • S24°
  • O19°
  • N13°
  • D9°
  • Best
  • Hot or crowded
  • Quiet
  • Mostly closed

Daytime averages, 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.

Why come

Merano sits in the basin where the Passer river meets the Adige, at the entrance to the Passeier and Vinschgau valleys, with mountains rising to 3,335 metres around it. The town was the capital of the County of Tyrol from the thirteenth century until 1420, when the Habsburgs moved the residence to Innsbruck. Empress Elisabeth of Austria began wintering here in 1870 for the climate and the mild basin air; her stays turned Merano into a late-Habsburg spa destination, drawing Kafka, Rilke and Richard Strauss.

The Kurhaus, an Art Nouveau pavilion on the Passer promenade, and Castel Trauttmansdorff, where Sissi stayed and which now holds twelve hectares of botanical gardens and the Touriseum, anchor the imperial layer of the city. Merano was annexed to Italy in 1919 under the Treaty of Saint-Germain. The bilingual city today is the centre of South Tyrolean wine and apple farming, host of the Merano WineFestival each November at the Kurhaus.

The Sunday letter

Meran is on our list. Its letter is still to come.

We are writing about all 1,000 of these towns, one at a time, in a free letter every Sunday: the photo, the food, the festa. That is our mission. Sign up and you will be there when Meran comes up. By Peter & Sophia, from Pietrasanta.

Read on

Meran in our articles

How to get there

From Verona (VRN), about 2 hours by car.

Milan (BGY) is about 2h 51m away.

By car from the centre of Bolzano 29 minutes or Trento 1 hour.

There is a railway station in the comune, so you can arrive without a car.

Coming from Verona?

Coming by train into Trento? Meran is about 1 hour away by road.

Meran, photo 1
Meran, photo 2

What to see

  • Giardini di Castel Trauttmansdorff

    Twelve hectares of botanical gardens around the castle where Empress Elisabeth wintered, with eighty landscapes over a hundred-metre slope and the Touriseum tourism museum.

  • Kurhaus

    Art Nouveau pavilion on the Passer promenade, the spa-town centrepiece of nineteenth-century Merano and venue of the Merano WineFestival each November.

  • Passeggiata Lungo Passirio

    Spa promenade along the Passer river through the centre of the city, lined with palms, flowers and the Wandelhalle, the covered Art Nouveau walking gallery.

  • Duomo di San Nicolò

    Gothic parish church in the old town, with a sixty-five-metre bell tower and the late-medieval frescoes that mark Merano's medieval Tyrolean centre.

  • Sentiero di Sissi

    Forty-minute walking trail from the historic centre to the Trauttmansdorff gardens, passing the Passirio promenades, the Wandelhalle and the winter walk.

  • Centro storico

    Medieval Tyrolean old town around the Steinach district, with Laubengasse arcades, the Stadttheater of 1900 and the Habsburg-era spa quarter.

The slow-trip planner

Building a trip? Find where Meran fits in a slow Italy circuit.

Answer five questions. We will shape a geographically coherent slow trip from the 1,000 Italian towns most travelers skip. Yours to save and share.

Plan your trip

We recommend

Where to eat and stay

Not our picks, but places the guides put their name to: a Michelin star, a Gambero Rosso fork, a Slow Food snail, a Michelin Key for the hotels. Worth a table, a counter, or a night when you pass through.

Through the year

What happens here

Feasts and festivals that come back year after year. We give the month rather than the date, because the date moves and the month rarely does. Check with the source before you plan a journey around one.

Living here

  • Population 41,071
  • In-betweeni
  • Pharmacy in town
  • High school within a 30-minute drive
  • Train station in the comune
  • Nearest airport Verona, 2 h 6 min drive
  • Regional capital Bolzano, 29 min drive

Thermal baths in town: Therme Meran, Terme di Merano.

Common questions

What is Meran known for?
Meran is a Habsburg spa city at 324 metres on the Passer river, palm-lined promenades below 3,000-metre peaks and the gardens where Empress Sissi spent her winters.
Where is Meran?
Meran is a comune in the province of Bolzano, in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol.
What is the nearest airport to Meran?
Verona (VRN), about 2 hours by car.
Can you get to Meran without a car?
Yes. There is a railway station in the comune, so you can arrive by train.
How long is the drive from Bolzano to Meran?
About 29 minutes by car.
When is the best time to visit Meran?
Best in Apr–Oct. July is the warmest month, averaging 28 degrees, and May the wettest, with about 18 rain days.
Is there a sagra or a festival in Meran?
Yes. Festa dell'Uva a Merano. August is when the first of them falls.
Which other towns are like Meran?
Anagni, Todi and Castiglion Fiorentino.
How many people live in Meran?
41,071 at the 2023 count.
Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources

Recognised as

The numbers

  • Elevation: 324 m
  • Population: 41,071
  • Surface area: 26.34 km²

These figures were compiled from public directories: ISTAT, OpenStreetMap and Wikidata, and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.

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