Dambel

Dambel lies in the Val di Non, on the road between Sanzeno and Sarnonico, and its name says what it has always been: it comes from the Latin ambulum, a place of passage, or from the Celtic amb, water. The old trading road between Lombardy and Germany ran through here, crossing the Novella stream at the Pozzena bridge — and that bridge ended up on the municipal arms, to recall the crossroads. The village first appears as Amble in a document of 1174 from the monastery of San Michele all'Adige.

In the parish church, on top of the knoll above the village, there is something rare: a winged altar of polychrome wood dated 1520. These were altars that stayed shut all week and were opened only for the great feasts, and in the Val di Non they were everywhere until, in the eighteenth century, they were replaced by marble ones; the one at Dambel is the only one left entirely intact. Open, it shows the Virgin enthroned holding out a bunch of grapes to the Child, with Saint Vigilius and Saint Nicholas; closed, the wings are painted with scenes from the life of Mary. The economy is apples, and a statistic of 2025 placed Dambel among the poorest comuni in Italy: but the figure counts only income from employment, and it says little about a village of fruit growers.