A Glimpse into the South Tyrol Tourism History

When we were in Meran/South Tyrol, we spent a lot of time at the Castle Trauttmansdorff, a botanical garden right outside the city center. In the castle, where once Elisabeth of Bavaria, the famous empress of Austria, stayed for an extended vacation, today we can visit a museum about the development of the tourism in South Tyrol. Which is actually more than that: a step into the history of the region.

Schloss Trauttmansdorff in Merano, South Tyrol/Italy

I expected – if anything – a museum where I walk around and after half an hour I would be done and go out. But I was totally wrong in this case. We spent around 4 hours in the museum. This one is even for people like me who don’t really enjoy big museums very much, a place to stay and enjoy.

200 years of history about everything. Not only tourism but also the development of sports, history of the region, gossip, a look into the daily life – all displayed in various ways- models, movies, audio, information boards and a lot of interesting objects. And many of them displayed in beautiful rooms that once were a castle for kings and noble families.

The history starts in the 18th century until today. Everything is explained in three languages (Italian, English and German) and gives a great view on the impact of tourism to the local people and the environment. South Tyrol did a good job out of it, in my opinion, as today it points a lot on ‘clean’ tourism, watching out for the best way to have less fatal impact on the environment and to cover also special groups like allergy-friendly places. But that is another aspect..

Very interesting is also the floor with a few rooms furbished like they were when once the Empress Elisabeth was living here during extended vacations for her health.

We spent hours in the museum without getting tired. In the end we were just hungry and had a nice lunch sitting outside the museum on a terrace and overlooking the beautiful, huge botanical garden.. which was waiting for us to be explored as well.