The woodcarvings at Ortisei

During our time in Bressanone we had the opportunity to travel to the tiny mountain village of Ortisei to view the artisan woodcarvings that are done there. There are many shops that all turn out high quality products, made of the dry, fine-grained Linden wood which is aged several years.

This is a sample Nativity Scene outside one of the showrooms.


A statue of St. Christopher, hand painted.


St. Michael.


Augustin quietly watching a carver as he finishes a corpus for a crucifix. It was very interesting to see his calipers and tools all laid out neatly on the table.


Dad examining some of the miniature statues on shelves.


We parked the cars outside the town and then walked into the town. Here we saw a sign written in the three languages of the region, Italian, German, and believe it or not, Ladin.(Not Latin, that's not a typo, Ladin.)


The town consisted of one main street, some houses behind it, and a piazza with a small church.


The mountains provided a lovely backdrop, crisscrossed with ski lift cars laboring up and down. Even though it wasn't ski season, the view from the top must have still been worth the ride.


Evidently the local honeybee population decided that the Apple Strudel was delectable.....