Rifiano

In a valley where almost everyone has German as their mother tongue — a little more than ninety-six per cent at the last census — the village's name is Latin. Rifiano appears as Rufian in the records of the abbey of Benediktbeuern in 1116, then as Ruffianis in 1158 and Rüffian in 1357, and it comes from the personal name Rufus or Rufius: it means «the land of Rufus», in all probability a Roman landowner. The village lies around five hundred metres on the western side of the lower Val Passiria, north of Merano, between the farmsteads and the mountains of the Tessa group, and for centuries it followed the fortunes of Merano and of the Burgraviato, of which it was part.

What gave it importance, in the Middle Ages, is the Marian sanctuary. The pilgrimage church already existed in Gothic form in 1310, was rebuilt in Baroque form in 1671 and keeps late-Gothic frescoes of 1415; its bell tower, with the belfry window and the onion dome, is the symbol of the village, so much so that it is the only thing on the town's coat of arms, adopted in 1968. Today Rifiano lives on tourism, thanks to the mild climate and the nearness of Merano: the Val Passiria cycle path runs through it, coming down from San Leonardo to Merano and from there going on towards Bolzano or up the Val Venosta to the Resia pass. An administrative curiosity: the town hall of Rifiano also houses the municipal offices of Caines.