What is St. Ulrich known for?

Local craft since the 17th century: sacred sculpture, altars, nativity scenes and the Val Gardena wooden-toy industry that exported across Europe. Ladin-speaking valley with the language as the everyday medium for most residents, trilingual signage and a strong cultural identity preserved through Union Generela di Ladins. Three cable cars (Seceda, Alpe di Siusi, Resciesa) link the village to the Sellaronda and the Dolomiti Superski circuit, and Ortisei hosted the 1970 Alpine Ski World Championships.

When is the best time to visit St. Ulrich?

Jun–Sep, Dec–Mar. June through September is the green Dolomite season: the Alpe di Siusi opens fully, the Seceda ridge is walkable from the cable car, and the rifugi of the Odle and Sassolungo run their full summer programmes. December through March is the ski half of the year, with the Sellaronda circuit accessed directly from Ortisei. April, May and November are the closure months. Lift companies use them for maintenance; many hotels shut. The town is at 1,236 metres, so winters are long and cold but sunny, and summer nights are cool even in July.

St. Ulrich is a comune in the province of Bolzano, Trentino-South Tyrol region of Italy, about 37 kilometers from Bolzano.

How do I get to St. Ulrich?

From Bolzano, St. Ulrich is roughly 37 km by road.

Trentino-South Tyrol · Bolzano

St. Ulrich

A Ladin wood-carving town at 1,236 metres, set between two high plateaus.

Known for

WOODCARVING
Local craft since the 17th century: sacred sculpture, altars, nativity scenes and the Val Gardena wooden-toy industry that exported across Europe.
LADIN VAL GARDENA
Ladin-speaking valley with the language as the everyday medium for most residents, trilingual signage and a strong cultural identity preserved through Union Generela di Ladins.
DOLOMITI SUPERSKI
Three cable cars (Seceda, Alpe di Siusi, Resciesa) link the village to the Sellaronda and the Dolomiti Superski circuit, and Ortisei hosted the 1970 Alpine Ski World Championships.

When to visit

Best · Jun–Sep, Dec–Mar

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

Why come

The valley climbs east from the Eisack toward the Sella and the Sassolungo, and the town sits at its middle point. Almost all residents speak Ladin at home, and signage runs trilingual in Ladin, German and Italian. Three cable cars leave the village in three directions: one to the northwest onto a plateau, one north onto a long ridge below the Odle, and one south onto a high meadow that forms the valley's southern edge. The museum inside the Cësa di Ladins holds the record of the valley's carving tradition alongside fossils from the surrounding peaks and material on Luis Trenker, the mountaineer-actor-director who came from here.

The layout, a village hemmed by three lifts and named for the saint of its own parish church, reads as a place organized entirely around the ground it sits on: craft below, peaks and plateaus in every direction above.

The Sunday letter

We haven’t written St. Ulrich’s letter yet.

One town every Sunday, with the photo, the food, the festa. Be there when this one comes up. Free, by Peter & Sophia from Pietrasanta.

What to see

Parish church (St. Ulrich/San Udalrico)
Neoclassical church with Baroque elements, rebuilt in the late 18th century, dedicated to the Epiphany and to St. Ulrich, the patron saint who gives the town its German name.
Museum Gherdëina
Local-heritage museum inside the Cësa di Ladins documenting four centuries of woodcarving, wooden toys, sacred sculpture, Dolomite fossils and the Trenker family archive.
Seceda
Long limestone ridge reached by cable car from the village, with the Odle/Geisler peaks rising sharply to the north and high meadows dropping toward the valley.
Alpe di Siusi/Seiser Alm
Europe's largest high-alpine meadow, a plateau at 1,800 to 2,300 metres reached by cable car from the village, with the Sassolungo and Sciliar on its edges.
Resciesa
Plateau above the village reached by funicular, with the chapel of San Giacomo and trails toward the Aferer Geisler and Brogles.

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Living here

Population 4,793
In-betweeni
Pharmacy in town
High school within a 30-minute drive
Nearest airport Verona, 2 h 24 min drive
Regional capital Bolzano, 43 min drive

Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources

Recognised as

Ski Area

The numbers

Elevation: 1236 m
Population: 4,793
Surface area: 24.16 km²

On the map

Google Maps Apple Maps Directions from Bolzano

These figures were compiled from public directories — ISTAT, OpenStreetMap, 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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