Anywhere Italy
Stemma di Moena

Trentino-South Tyrol · Trento

Moena

The largest village in Val di Fassa, Ladin-speaking, dressed in Ottoman costume for three days every August.

1184m

Elevation

48 km / 30 mi

Nearest hub (Bolzano)

2,563

Population

Jun–Sep, Dec–Mar

Best time to visit

Why come

Moena sits at 1,184 metres at the entrance to Val di Fassa, the Ladin valley that climbs north toward Canazei and the Sella massif. About three-quarters of residents speak Ladin as their first language. The village holds the seat of the Comun General de Fascia, the institutional body of the Ladin minority in Trentino. Its signature curiosity is La Turchia di Moena, a three-day August festival in which residents dress as Ottoman janissaries and crown an elder as sultan, commemorating a Turkish soldier said to have been left behind after the failed Siege of Vienna in 1683. The other story locals carry is Domenico Chiocchetti, the painter who decorated the Italian Chapel on Lamb Holm in Orkney as a prisoner of war and returned to Moena to live the rest of his life. The Church of San Vigilio holds his work as well.

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Gallery

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Known for

  • Chiesa di San Vigilio

    Parish church first consecrated in 1164, rebuilt across the centuries, with a gilded wooden altar by Valentino Poschiavin (1715) and 18th-century paintings by Valentino Rovisi.

  • Chiesa di San Volfango

    Small Romanesque church next to the parish, with 15th-century frescoes and a wooden Baroque ceiling carved by Giovanni Guadagnini in the 17th century.

  • Museo Ladin de Fascia (sezione Moena)

    The Ladin cultural museum network with a Moena exhibit on local language, costume and rural life in the lower Val di Fassa.

  • Val San Pellegrino

    Side valley climbing southeast from Moena toward the Passo San Pellegrino and the Marmolada group, with summer alpine pastures and winter ski runs.

  • Alpe Lusia

    Plateau above Moena reached by cable car, with views onto the Catinaccio, Latemar and Pale di San Martino in the southern Dolomites.

When to visit

Best months · Jun–Sep, Dec–Mar

  • J
  • F
  • M
  • A
  • M
  • J
  • J
  • A
  • S
  • O
  • N
  • D
  • Best
  • Hot or crowded
  • Quiet
  • Mostly closed

June through September brings the green Dolomite season: alpine pastures open, the Catinaccio and Latemar are walkable from the cable cars above town, and the August Turchia festival fills the streets for three days. December through March is the ski half of the year, with lifts running on Alpe Lusia and over the Passo San Pellegrino into the Tre Valli circuit. April, May, October and November are quiet, between seasons. Many hotels and lift facilities close for spring and autumn maintenance. Winter nights at 1,184 metres run below freezing for long stretches; summer days are mild, rarely above twenty-five degrees.

How to get there

From Bolzano, Moena is roughly 48 km by road. Allow about 41–58 minutes depending on traffic and route choice (autostrada vs scenic).

Drive time to the nearest gateway airports

  • Venice2h 30m
  • Verona2h 33m
  • Milan3h 18m

Elevation 1184 m

Google MapsApple MapsDirections from Bolzano

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