The name has changed shape four times, and each time somebody wrote it down: terra Lauregni in 1233, Lafarende in 1436, Lafreng in 1528, Laurein in 1870. And Lafreng is still how people say it here. Its origin has long been argued over: some derived it from the Latin laurus, the laurel, but scholars of place names now prefer a Rhaetian root, Lawara, meaning rocky ground. Anyone who looks at these slopes will side with the second reading.
Laurein is one of the three German-speaking comuni of the Val di Non, and it is so because in the Middle Ages it was founded by settlers who came over from the Val d'Ultimo. Its coat of arms, adopted in 1967, is a black plough: it stands for the labour of breaking in the fields, and its four corners stand for the four original German-speaking comuni of the valley, two of which today are a single one. In 1946, under the De Gasperi-Gruber agreement, the village passed from the province of Trento to that of Bolzano.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Lauregno
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
