Borgo Lares
Borgo Lares is a municipality in Trentino formed on 1 January 2016 by the merger of Bolbeno and Zuclo, two ancient communities of...
Updated 21 July 2026
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The story
The story of Borgo Lares
Borgo Lares in the Giudicarie, Between the Rendena and the Esteriori
The municipality of Borgo Lares was created on 1 January 2016 through the merger of Bolbeno and Zuclo, which chose to join their administrations while keeping the municipal seat in Zuclo. The territory, just over 22 square kilometres for around 700 residents, includes, besides the two main centres, the small hamlets of Giugià and Stele, and lies a very short distance from Tione di Trento, the capital of the Giudicarie. It is precisely along this stretch that the Sarca river, having come down from the Val Rendena with its torrential character, slows down and crosses the so-called Busa di Tione before opening out toward the Giudicarie Esteriori, the basin of Lomaso, Bleggio and Banale. Borgo Lares therefore occupies a geographical hinge position, set on a sunny terrace that looks slightly down over the valley floor, in a landscape of woods, hay meadows and small rural clusters that combine the alpine soul of the Rendena with the gentler character of the outer valleys.
The Masi, the Churches and the Sanctuary of the Madonna del Lares
The landscape of Borgo Lares is dotted with masi, the old stone-and-timber rural buildings that served as home and barn-hayloft for the farming families of the Giudicarie, still visible today among the meadows around Bolbeno and Zuclo. What actually gave the new municipality its name, though, is a place of worship: the Sanctuary of the Madonna del Lares, which stands about three kilometres above Bolbeno, at nearly 800 metres of altitude, in a clearing ringed by larch trees from which the name Lares is said to derive. Tradition tells that the Marian image was found by a shepherd hanging from a larch, and that, whenever it was moved to a more accessible spot, it kept returning there, prompting the community to build the sanctuary on that very site. In the two main centres, the Church of San Zeno in Bolbeno, recognisable by the bell tower shown on the village's coat of arms, and the Church of San Martino in Zuclo, dedicated to the patron saint celebrated on 11 November, preserve the religious memory of the two original communities.
The Adamello-Brenta Nature Park and Outdoor Life
Thanks to its position at the entrance to the Val Rendena, Borgo Lares is a convenient gateway to the Adamello-Brenta Nature Park, Trentino's largest protected area, which extends just to the north between the Brenta Dolomites and the Adamello-Presanella massif. Trails and farm tracks start from the municipal territory and climb toward coniferous woods and high-altitude pastures, used by hikers and cyclists heading into the Rendena, while the lanes among the masi are suited to gentler walks across the valley floor. One curiosity makes the small ski area of Le Coste, above Bolbeno, unique: sitting at just 575 metres of altitude and equipped with snowmaking, it is considered among the lowest-altitude ski facilities in Italy, a small local winter hub that lets families and beginners ski without travelling far from the valley floor.
The Sarca and the Landscape of the Busa di Tione
Just below Borgo Lares flows the Sarca, the river born from the glaciers of the Adamello and Presanella, which, after crossing the whole Val Rendena, receives the waters of the Rio Arnò, one of its main tributaries, right around Tione, and changes direction as it enters the basin known as the Busa di Tione. It is a transitional landscape, where the river slows its course before being channelled further downstream into the narrow and spectacular Limarò canyon: around Bolbeno and Zuclo the territory alternates broadleaf woods, damp clearings and small streams that carve minor gorges and drops as they run down to the valley. Walking along the paths that link the two hamlets to the valley floor, one comes across views of the Sarca and of the mountains closing the horizon, from Monte Cadria to the first peaks of the Val Rendena, in a setting still little touched by mass tourism.
History and Experiences Between Bolbeno and Zuclo
The history of Bolbeno reaches back to Roman times, attested by the discovery of imperial coins, and continues with the village's mention in a bishop's testament of the year 928, a sign of its long belonging to the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Trento; municipal autonomy came only in 1952, when Bolbeno separated from Tione, while Zuclo had already been a municipality in its own right with its own administrative history until the 2015-2016 merger. Today the two former communities live together in a single small, rural-minded municipality, where livestock farming, haymaking and the production of typical Giudicarie cheeses, such as Spressa DOP, remain an integral part of the local economy alongside a form of tourism tied closely to the mountains. Walking among the masi of Bolbeno and Zuclo, climbing up to the Sanctuary of the Madonna del Lares, or following the trails toward the Val Rendena are the most authentic ways to get to know this corner of the Giudicarie still off the main tourist routes.
Not to be missed
- Sanctuary of the Madonna del Lares, among the larches above Bolbeno
- Church of San Zeno in Bolbeno, with the bell tower that symbolises the village
- Church of San Martino in Zuclo, dedicated to the patron saint of 11 November
- Skiing at the Le Coste ski area, among the lowest-altitude slopes in Italy
- A walk among the masi and the trails toward the Sarca and the Val Rendena
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What to see in Borgo Lares
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