Montagna

In the territory of Montagna the place names are an archive in layers. Some are pre-Roman, like Gomaroa and Tschalfai; others of Romance origin, like Kalditsch, Glen, Pinzon and Montagna itself, which comes from the Latin muntanea, «of the mountain»; and from there on the name changes dress in every century — Montana between 1215 and 1218, Montagna in 1234, villa Muntagne in 1307, Montæny in 1435. Around 955 the Bavarian settlement began, adding its own layer. The latest is very recent indeed: until 14 April 2023 the comune was called simply Montagna, then it added to its name «sulla Strada del Vino», on the Wine Road.

In such a village, it is striking to learn who rests in the cemetery of the hamlet of Gleno: Ettore Tolomei, born in 1865 and dead in 1952, the nationalist senator who was the chief architect of the Italianisation of the German place names of South Tyrol after the annexation to Italy. He lived here, and here he is buried. The rest of the comune is older than any controversy: on the porphyry hill of Castelfeder there is a prehistoric and Roman settlement, with the upper castle standing about a hundred and ninety metres above the valley floor; above the village rises Castel d'Enna, of the twelfth century, and the silver lion of the lords of Enn ended up on the communal arms, adopted in 1967. In the church of Santo Stefano at Pinzano there is an altar by Hans Klocker of 1490. From 1917 to 1963, finally, the Val di Fiemme railway passed through here: once the line closed, the station became a private house.