Altavalle
Altavalle è un comune del Trentino nato il 1° gennaio 2016 dalla fusione di quattro comuni storici del versante sinistro della Val...
Atualizado em 17 julho 2026
Nesta estação · Julho · Verão
O que fazer em Altavalle agora
A história
A história de Altavalle
Altavalle in the Valle di Cembra and the Merged Villages
Altavalle occupies the left bank of the Valle di Cembra, the valley carved by the Avisio torrent between Trento and the Val di Fiemme and Val di Fassa, well known for its terraced vineyards and porphyry. The municipality was created on 1 January 2016 through the merger of four autonomous communes that had each kept their own identity for centuries: Faver, which became the municipal seat and largest hamlet, Grumes, set along the Avisio and divided into the districts of Gregión, Dos, la Riva, Masi and Rella, Valda, the highest and most secluded, and Grauno, the smallest, perched further up toward the head of the valley. Each of the four hamlets still keeps its own church, its own cemetery and its own dialect name, while the new municipality adopted a name that simply recalls the elevated position of the territory above the valley floor. Administratively, Altavalle belongs to the Comunità della Valle di Cembra, a district that shares with its neighbours a wine-growing economy, a porphyry tradition and a terraced landscape.
Terraced Vineyards and Müller Thurgau
The landscape of Altavalle is dominated by terraced vineyards that cover the slopes from the valley floor up to several hundred metres in elevation, held in place by kilometres of dry stone walls built by hand over the centuries. Here, as throughout the Valle di Cembra, the leading variety is Müller Thurgau, a white grape that on these high, well-exposed and well-ventilated terraces finds ideal conditions to develop intense aromas and a marked minerality, making this area one of Italy's most representative zones for the variety. Alongside it, growers also cultivate Schiava, Pinot Nero and other local varieties, often delivered to the valley's cooperative winery. This mountain viticulture, practised on slopes too steep for machinery, demands constant manual labour throughout the year, from pruning to harvest, and remains the main source of agricultural income for the families of Faver, Grumes, Grauno and Valda.
Porphyry and the Local Economy
Below the vineyards and along the steepest slopes, porphyry emerges, the reddish volcanic rock of Permian origin that characterises the entire Valle di Cembra and that in Faver rises in sheer walls above the village. Quarried for centuries across the valley, porphyry has for generations been the building material for paving, roofing and dry stone walls, and it provided work for quarrymen and stonecutters in the hamlets of Altavalle as well, part of a trade that intertwines with the larger quarrying economy of the neighbouring villages of the valley. Today quarrying coexists with viticulture and with crafts that in Grumes have old roots in woodworking, while in Faver silk production, practised until the 1930s, represents a now-closed but still remembered chapter of the local economic history. This variety of trades, from stone to wood to the vine, explains the character of a rural municipality that has never relied on a single activity.
Homesteads, Woods and Nature
Above the belt of vineyards, the territory of Altavalle climbs quickly toward coniferous and broadleaf woods that cover much of the municipal surface, especially in the higher portions of Grumes and Valda. Here one finds the masi, the old scattered rural homesteads that once ensured the self-sufficiency of farming families and that today, in some cases, have been restored as homes or small diffuse-hospitality lodgings. The hamlet of Masi di Grumes, which keeps its own church dedicated to the Madonna di Caravaggio, bears witness to this settlement pattern typical of the Trentino Alps. The trails that climb through vineyards, homesteads and woods connect the four hamlets to one another and reach the ridges separating the Valle di Cembra from the Val di Fiemme, offering panoramic views over the whole furrow carved by the Avisio, with vistas that on the clearest days stretch from the terraced vineyards to the Dolomites in the distance.
History and Experiences
The history of Altavalle is the history of its four villages, marked by events common to the whole Valle di Cembra: the episcopal jurisdiction of Trento over Grumes granted in 1185, the castle of Dos de Castelèt destroyed as early as the 12th century, the siege by Napoleonic troops that crossed the valley in 1797 and the damage suffered by Faver, and later the events of the First and Second World Wars that directly affected the territory. According to tradition, the Valle di Cembra was also crossed by Albrecht Dürer on his journey toward Venice, along the old communication routes between the Germanic and Venetian worlds that here intertwined with the paths through the vineyards. The five hamlet churches, including Santa Lucia in Grumes with frescoes by Valentino Rovisi and Saints Filippo and Giacomo in Faver with its 56-metre bell tower, remain the main architectural landmarks. Today, visiting the wineries, walking among the terraces and hiking through the woods toward Grauno and Valda allow travellers to discover a corner of Trentino still off the main tourist circuits.
Not to be missed
- The Church of Saints Filippo and Giacomo in Faver, with its 56-metre bell tower
- The Church of Santa Lucia in Grumes, with frescoes by Valentino Rovisi
- A Müller Thurgau tasting at a Valle di Cembra winery
- A walk among the terraced vineyards and dry stone walls toward Grauno and Valda
- A hike through the woods among scattered homesteads, including the Masi di Grumes hamlet
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O que ver em Altavalle
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