Tubre
Tubre, in German Taufers im Münstertal, is the westernmost municipality of the Bolzano province, set in the lower Val Monastero (M...
Updated 21 July 2026
This season · July · Summer
What to do in Tubre now
The story
The story of Tubre
Tubre in the Val Monastero, on the Border with Switzerland
Tubre lies at the south-eastern end of the Val Monastero, the valley that descends from the Fuorn Pass to meet the Val Venosta and that for roughly two thirds belongs to Switzerland, in the Canton of Graubünden. The border runs just a few kilometres from the main village, marked by a customs crossing linking Tubre to the Swiss village of Müstair, the first settlement beyond the frontier. This position made the village, for centuries, a passage point between the Rhaeto-Romance world and the Tyrolean one, so much so that local tradition tells of Charlemagne passing through on his way to Rome in the year 800. Until the early nineteenth century the community spoke Rhaeto-Romance, as still happens in the upper Swiss valley today; the abandonment of that language in favour of German marked Tubre's cultural shift toward Tyrol, while the passage to Italy in 1919 fixed its present-day borders. Today the village, with its hamlets, keeps a compact rural layout around the Tubre stream, amid cultivated slopes and woods toward the Rhaetian Alps.
The Church of San Giovanni and its Romanesque Frescoes
The most celebrated monument in Tubre is the Church of San Giovanni Battista, or St. Johann, built on the remains of a Benedictine abbey founded in the 9th century and fallen into ruin around 1130. In 1218 the nobleman Schwiker von Reichenberg handed the building over to the Order of the Hospitallers, later known as the Order of Malta, who enlarged it following an unusual Greek-cross plan and had its walls decorated with Byzantine-influenced frescoes, datable to around 1220-1230. Biblical scenes and figures of donors unfold across the southern wall and vault, while the ashlar-stone façade opens with a wide portal of three depressed arches. On the northern wall stands the image of Saint Christopher, the oldest known depiction of the saint in the Tyrolean area and one of the largest in the Alpine region, joined by Gothic frescoes from 1383. Deconsecrated in the eighteenth century, the church passed to the municipality of Tubre in 1832 and underwent major restoration that makes it today one of the best preserved Romanesque fresco cycles in South Tyrol.
The Hospice of the Holy Spirit and the History of the Pilgrims
Next to the church, the Order of the Hospitallers also built a hospice intended to shelter pilgrims and travellers making their way up the Val Monastero toward the alpine passes and Switzerland. From the fourteenth century onward, the upper portico served as a dormitory, while the lower one was used as a lodging room for pilgrims passing through, part of a system of hospitality that reflected Tubre's vocation as a frontier stop along one of the oldest routes of the Rhaetian Alps. The presence of the Order, later absorbed into the Knights of Malta, tied the village's fortunes for centuries to a charitable network offering shelter, care and spiritual support to those facing the journey toward the snow-bound passes. With the gradual departure of the community over the sixteenth century, the hospice's original function faded, but its memory remains intertwined with that of the neighbouring church, a testimony to an age when faith and the welcoming of travellers were part of life on the border.
Stelvio National Park and the Natural Landscape
The territory of Tubre is among the municipalities included in the Stelvio National Park, the largest protected area in the Italian Alps, which here reaches its western edge before meeting, beyond the border, the Swiss National Park. On the valley's right-hand slope rises the Chavalatsch ridge, an offshoot of the Ortles-Cevedale group, with elevations within the municipality ranging from about 1,050 up to over 3,190 metres. Forests of Norway spruce, larch and Swiss stone pine cover the slopes up to roughly 2,000 metres, giving way above that to high-altitude pastures where deer, chamois, roe deer and ibex are not uncommon, alongside emblematic species such as the golden eagle and the bearded vulture. From the main village, hiking trails climb toward mountain huts and border ridges, offering views over the whole Val Monastero and, on clearer days, glimpses of the mountains of Graubünden: a natural heritage that makes Tubre a quiet gateway to one of the best preserved alpine environments in Europe.
Traditions and Experiences Between Two Cultures
Life in Tubre remains shaped by its being a border municipality with a German-speaking identity, with over 97% of the population speaking German as their mother tongue: an identity reflected in the rural architecture, the religious festivals and the mountain farming still practised on around 350 hectares of hay meadows, pastures and small vegetable plots. The village is also an ideal starting point for visiting, just a few kilometres away, the Swiss village of Müstair with its famous Carolingian abbey, a UNESCO World Heritage Site for the early medieval frescoes it preserves, reachable on foot or by bicycle along the valley-floor road, even though it lies outside the municipal territory of Tubre. In the village, guided tours of the Church of San Giovanni, markets tied to alpine dairy products, and themed walks along the valley trails are periodically organised, while hospitality in small family-run establishments allows visitors to explore a corner of South Tyrol where German language, Habsburg history and closeness to Switzerland combine into a unique identity.
Not to be missed
- Church of San Giovanni Battista, with its famous Romanesque fresco cycle and the Saint Christopher
- The ancient hospice of the Order of the Hospitallers next to the church
- A hike along the Chavalatsch ridge within Stelvio National Park
- The border crossing and the nearby Carolingian abbey of Müstair, in Switzerland
- A walk along the Tubre stream among meadows and traditional Tyrolean rural architecture
To see
What to see in Tubre
Routes · Trovido Route
