What is Pinzolo known for?

Twenty-two-metre Dance of Death fresco painted on the exterior of San Vigilio in 1539 by Simone Baschenis, the most complete surviving cycle of its kind in the Alps. Gateway to the largest protected area in Trentino, with the granite Adamello-Presanella on one side and the UNESCO Brenta Dolomites on the other. The Habsburg-era resort up the valley, frazione of Pinzolo, where Emperor Franz Joseph and Princess Sissi summered in 1889 and 1894.

Pinzolo is a comune in the province of Trento, Trentino-South Tyrol region of Italy, about 77 kilometers from Trento.

Trentino-South Tyrol · Trento

Pinzolo

The Val Rendena base town at 770 metres between the Adamello-Presanella and the Brenta Dolomites, with a fifteenth-century church wrapped in a Dance of Death fresco.

770m

Elevation

77 km / 48 mi

Nearest hub (Trento)

3,042

Population

May–Oct

Best time to visit

Why come

Pinzolo sits at 770 metres on the floor of Val Rendena, the long Trentino valley that separates the Adamello-Presanella granite massif to the west from the Brenta Dolomites to the east. The settlement is documented from 1211 as Penzollo, a medieval community of farmers and pastoralists that kept a degree of independence from the D'Arco counts thanks to its village assembly, the Università. Most of the municipal territory falls inside the Adamello-Brenta Nature Park, the largest protected area in Trentino. The exterior of the Chiesa di San Vigilio, just above the village, carries a Danza Macabra painted in 1539 by Simone Baschenis: twenty-two metres of fresco showing eighteen pairs of skeletons leading pope, emperor, king, beggar and child in a single procession. Pinzolo became a ski town in the second half of the twentieth century. The cable car climbs from the centre to 2,100 metres, and the slopes connect by gondola to Madonna di Campiglio, the resort that began as a hospice for travellers and turned into the place Emperor Franz Joseph and Princess Sissi came to summer in the 1890s.

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Gallery

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Known for

Chiesa di San Vigilio
Fifteenth-century church above the village, with a twenty-two-metre Danza Macabra fresco painted on the exterior wall by Simone Baschenis in 1539.
Chiesa di Santo Stefano
Cemetery church on the edge of the village, frescoed inside and outside by the Baschenis painters with another Dance of Death cycle and scenes of saints.
Parco Naturale Adamello-Brenta
Largest protected area in Trentino, covering most of the Pinzolo territory and including the UNESCO Brenta Dolomites and the Adamello-Presanella glaciers.
Madonna di Campiglio
Frazione of Pinzolo at 1,550 metres on the Brenta Dolomites, a resort built around the hospice that hosted Habsburg royalty at the end of the nineteenth century.
Pinzolo–Madonna di Campiglio ski area
Part of the Skirama Dolomiti Adamello Brenta circuit, with the Pinzolo–Doss del Sabion gondola climbing from the village to 2,100 metres.
Val Genova
Glacial side valley reaching west from Pinzolo into the Adamello-Presanella, a chain of waterfalls and pastures leading toward the Mandrone and Lobbia glaciers.

When to visit

Best months · May–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

May through October is the open season in Pinzolo, with the longest days in June and July and the Val Genova waterfalls running full from snowmelt. September is the cleanest light, the larches still green, the high refuges in the Brenta Dolomites still staffed. December through April reopens the village as a ski base, but the editorial calendar tracks summer use: hiking, the rifugio circuit, the Baschenis frescoes accessible without snow. July and August fill with Italian and German families on the lift system; the village centre stays warm enough for short sleeves into evening. November and late April are the shoulder weeks, with most refuges closed and the lifts between seasons.