What is Luserna known for?

Last enclave in Italy where the medieval Bavarian dialect of Cimbrian is spoken at home by roughly 90 per cent of residents. Lusérn museum complex covering the Cimbrian community, the Great War fortifications, prehistoric metallurgy and bobbin lace, with around 12,000 visitors a year. Austro-Hungarian frontier fort heavily shelled in 1915, part of the Alpe Cimbra Great War fortification circuit with Forte Belvedere and Forte delle Benne.

Luserna is a comune in the province of Trento, Trentino-South Tyrol region of Italy, about 38 kilometers from Trento.

Trentino-South Tyrol · Trento

Luserna

A Cimbrian island at 1,333 metres on the Alpe Cimbra plateau, the last village in Italy where the medieval Bavarian dialect is still spoken at home.

1333m

Elevation

38 km / 24 mi

Nearest hub (Trento)

267

Population

Jun–Sep, Dec–Mar

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Borghi più belli d'Italia

Why come

Luserna stands at 1,333 metres on the northwestern edge of the Folgaria plateau, four kilometres south of Lavarone and forty kilometres southeast of Trento. The village was founded around 1400 by Bavarian-Cimbrian colonists who moved up from nearby Lavarone, and remains the last enclave in Italy where Cimbrian, an ancient Upper German dialect linguists call the oldest peripheral language of the German domain and the southernmost in the Alps, is still spoken fluently by roughly 90 per cent of the population. The Cimbrian linguistic minority was protected after the Second World War by the Gruber-De Gasperi Agreement and officially recognised in 2001 within Trentino's minority law. The village holds 267 residents, the Documentation Centre Lusérn with permanent exhibitions on the Cimbrian community, the Great War and prehistoric metallurgy, the Haus von Prükk house museum in a restored nineteenth-century Cimbrian dwelling, and Werk Lusérn, the Austro-Hungarian fort on the imperial frontier with Italy. It is one of the Borghi più Belli d'Italia.

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Gallery

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Known for

Centro Documentazione Lusérn
Documentation Centre with permanent exhibitions on the Cimbrian community, the Great War on the plateaus, prehistoric metallurgy, and Cimbrian bobbin lace.
Casa Museo Haus von Prükk
House museum in a restored nineteenth-century Cimbrian peasant dwelling, presented by guides who explain the dialect and the traditions of plateau life.
Werk Lusérn
Austro-Hungarian Great War fortress on the imperial frontier with Italy, heavily shelled in 1915 and now part of the plateau's fortification museum circuit.
Cimbrian village core
Cluster of stone and wood houses on the plateau edge, the centre of the Cimbrian-speaking community and one of the Borghi più Belli d'Italia.
Pinacoteca Rheo Martin Pedrazza
Picture gallery dedicated to the Luserna-born painter Rheo Martin Pedrazza, with work from the Cimbrian artistic tradition of the twentieth century.

When to visit

Best months · Jun–Sep, Dec–Mar

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

June through September is the alpine summer at 1,333 metres: cool evenings even in July, hiking on the plateau between Luserna and Lavarone, and the museums open at full schedule. December through March is the ski season on the Alpe Cimbra circuit, with snow holding above 1,300 metres into early April. April and May are quiet shoulder months between the lift closure and the green-up of the high pastures; many services close. October and November are the quietest months, with the plateau emptied of visitors and most of the resident population back to the small year-round rhythm of a village of 267 people.