Spiazzo
Spiazzo is a scattered municipality in the Val Rendena, in Trentino, stretched along the Sarca river at about 649 metres above sea...
Updated 21 July 2026
This season · July · Summer
What to do in Spiazzo now
The story
The story of Spiazzo
Spiazzo in the Val Rendena, along the Sarca
Spiazzo occupies a stretch of the middle Val Rendena, the valley carved by the Sarca river between the Adamello massif to the west and the Brenta Dolomites to the east, about fifty kilometres north-west of Trento. The scattered municipality brings together, under a single administration, the hamlets of Borzago, Fisto, with the nearby Ches, and Mortaso, alongside the small centre of Spiazzo Rendena, where the parish church and the town hall on Via San Vigilio stand. The valley floor, crossed by the Sarca and its minor tributaries, lies at about 649 metres above sea level and is enclosed by wooded slopes that climb quickly toward the alpine elevations of the Adamello-Brenta Park. This position, halfway between Tione di Trento and Pinzolo, made Spiazzo for centuries a crossroads of the Val Rendena, a role the town still keeps today as a waypoint toward Madonna di Campiglio and the side valleys of the Adamello.
The Waterfalls of the Wild Val di Borzago, in the Adamello-Brenta Park
From Spiazzo, past the hamlet of Borzago, the Val di Borzago opens up to the west, one of the twenty-one valleys that make up the Adamello-Brenta Natural Park, the largest protected area in Trentino. It is a valley that has remained on the margins of mass tourism, where the stream running through it drops in small falls and cascades between wooded walls, fed by the snowfields and small glaciers that open up further upstream, toward the eastern slopes of Carè Alto, which closes the horizon at 3,462 metres. The road climbs to the Pian della Sega, beyond which a trail continues on foot, passing the Malga Coel di Pelugo and the Malga Zucal, still-active mountain pastures, before reaching, at 2,459 metres, the Carè Alto refuge, the base for climbs to the summit. A little higher, at the Bocchetta del Cannone, two pieces of Austrian artillery from the Great War are still preserved, silent witnesses to the front that ran along these glacial ridges during the First World War.
The Hamlets, Churches and Heritage of Spiazzo
The municipality of Spiazzo was born in 1928 from the merger of three formerly independent communities, Borzago, Fisto and Mortaso, which still keep a strong identity of their own. Borzago, the most populous hamlet, holds the chapel of the Madonna del Rosario, whose feast is celebrated on the first Sunday of October, the eighteenth-century Cappella di Gìo, and the Cort da Togno, a rural farmstead decorated with paintings by local artist Vigilio Pellizzari Togno, who lived between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Fisto, flanked by the nearby settlement of Ches, stands on the road climbing toward the Passo Daone. Mortaso, the last village toward Madonna di Campiglio, bears, according to popular tradition, a name tied to the silence imposed on its inhabitants at the death of Saint Vigilio; the hamlet was largely destroyed by a fire in 1929. The religious heart of the valley, however, remains the parish church of San Vigilio, rebuilt in Renaissance forms in 1541-1542 on the traditional site of the saint's martyrdom, with frescoes attributed to Simone II Baschenis.
The Outdoors, Trails and Nature of the Adamello-Brenta Park
Much of Spiazzo's municipal territory falls within the Adamello-Brenta Natural Park, which, spanning thirty municipalities, is the largest protected area in Trentino, squeezed between the dolomitic peaks of the Brenta and the Adamello glacier, one of the largest in the Alps. Around the town a network of trails has developed, suited to different levels of fitness: the loop route called Tutto il bosco in un sentiero, about 3.8 kilometres between 1,212 and 1,467 metres of altitude, crosses the woods surrounding Spiazzo with a modest elevation gain, while more demanding hikes, such as the climb to Cima degli Obici, push toward the isolated peaks of the Adamello group. In the shoulder seasons the high-altitude pastures come alive with the seasonal movement of livestock, while in winter the proximity to Pinzolo and Madonna di Campiglio opens access to the ski slopes of the area's resorts.
History and Experiences in Spiazzo
The history of Spiazzo has its roots in the Christian tradition of the Val Rendena: according to legend, Saint Vigilio, bishop of Trento, was martyred here in 405, and for this reason the town was long known as the Pieve di Rendena, the religious reference seat for the whole valley from around 1027, when it came under the rule of the Prince-Bishopric of Trento. Between the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth, the upper valley was a theatre of the First World War, fought along the glacial ridges of Carè Alto and the Adamello: this is recalled today by the Museo Guerra Fronte Adamello, set up in Spiazzo starting in 1973, when the discovery of soldiers' remains on the Lares glacier prompted two local mountaineers to gather photographs, weapons, uniforms and documents from the front. Today Spiazzo combines this historical memory with a discreet, authentic tourist offer of refuges, mountain pastures, trails in the park and small events tied to its hamlets' traditions.
Not to be missed
- The parish church of San Vigilio in Spiazzo, with Renaissance frescoes attributed to Simone II Baschenis
- The Museo Guerra Fronte Adamello, with relics recovered from the glaciers of Carè Alto
- A hike into the Val di Borzago up to the Carè Alto refuge and the Bocchetta del Cannone
- The Cort da Togno in Borzago, decorated with paintings by Vigilio Pellizzari Togno
- The Tutto il bosco in un sentiero loop trail through the woods of the Adamello-Brenta Park
To see
What to see in Spiazzo
Routes · Trovido Route
