Puster Valley
Val Pusteria (Pustertal) runs through eastern South Tyrol from Bressanone to the Austrian border, at the foot of the Sesto Dolomit...
Updated 20 July 2026
Puster Valley
This season · July · Summer
What to do in Puster Valley now
The story
The story of Puster Valley
Geography and location
Val Pusteria (Pustertal) is one of South Tyrol's main valleys, in the province of Bolzano, running roughly 100 km west to east from the Bressanone area to the Monte Croce di Sesto Pass on the Austrian border. It is crossed by the Rienza river, which rises near the Dobbiaco Pass and flows west to Bressanone, where it joins the Isarco. The valley is bounded to the north by the Pusteria Alps and to the south by the Dolomites, with important side valleys such as Valle Aurina, Val Badia and Val di Sesto. Its main town is Brunico, the historic and administrative hub of the area.
History and identity
A land of passage since Roman times, Val Pusteria long belonged to the prince-bishopric of Bressanone and later to the County of Tyrol, with Brunico founded in the 13th century by Bishop Bruno von Kirchberg around his castle. Habsburg rule, the annexation to Italy after the First World War and the 1939 South Tyrol Option Agreements shaped a bilingual South Tyrolean identity, where German remains the mother tongue of most residents. Ethnographic museums such as the one at Teodone near Brunico tell the story of the old alpine farming life, still visible today in the mountain huts and traditional farmsteads scattered across the valley.
Landscape and nature
The landscape of Val Pusteria alternates a broad, cultivated valley floor with wooded slopes rising toward the Dolomite peaks and the Pusteria Alps. To the south lie the Fanes-Senes-Braies Nature Park, home to the famous emerald-green Lake Braies, and the Tre Cime Nature Park, which shelters the Tre Cime di Lavaredo and the UNESCO-listed Sesto Dolomites. To the north, Valle Aurina preserves glaciers and high peaks of the Tauern group. Coniferous forests, hay meadows and clear streams such as the Rio di Sesto complete one of the best-preserved alpine ecosystems in the eastern Alps.
Villages and places to see
Brunico, with its medieval old town and bishop's castle, is the commercial heart of the valley. Dobbiaco, on the shore of its namesake lake, was the summer residence of Gustav Mahler, while San Candido preserves the Romanesque collegiate church of Saints Candidus and Corbinian, among the oldest in Tyrol. Sesto, at the foot of the Sesto Dolomites, is the gateway to the Tre Cime, and Villabassa keeps a picturesque cluster of traditional houses. Above Brunico rises Plan de Corones, a ski area with panoramic lifts facing the Dolomites.
Food, wine and traditions
The cuisine of Val Pusteria follows classic South Tyrolean mountain traditions: canederli (Knödel) in broth or pan-fried, PGI speck, the valley's own Graukäse grey cheese, Schlutzkrapfen filled with spinach and ricotta, and fried strauben pastries at village festivals. High-altitude mountain huts still produce butter and aged alpine cheeses using traditional methods, while autumn brings Törggelen, the old farming tradition of roasted chestnuts and young wine served in farmhouses. The Christmas markets of Brunico and Dobbiaco then bring winter to life with local crafts, spiced pastries and steaming mulled wine.
Not to be missed
- Lake Braies and its lakeside walking paths
- Tre Cime di Lavaredo in the Tre Cime Natural Park, above Sesto
- Historic centre and bishop's castle of Brunico
- Romanesque collegiate church of San Candido
- Plan de Corones with the Messner Mountain Museum Corones
To see
What to see in Puster Valley
Routes · Trovido Route
Routes in Puster Valley
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