Stabinger Nativity Scene Collection

A formative experience in 1906 laid the foundation for today's Stabinger Nativity Scene Collection (Krippensammlung Stabinger) in Sesto. Baker and innkeeper Anton Stabinger made a pilgrimage to Palestine that year. He brought back sketches and dedicated himself to creating nativity scenes over the following decades. Contemporary artists carved the magnificent figures.

His grandson, also named Anton Stabinger, had the nativity scenes restored and completed, making them accessible to the public. The first nativity scene was destroyed during the First World War, but the second, with over 1,000 figures, survived. Today, four two-metre-high panoramic nativity scenes, as well as various Tyrolean nativity scenes, are on display at the Hotel Mondschein.

South Tyrol offers three more nativity scene exhibitions worth seeing: Maranatha in the Valle Aurina, the Muri-Gries Museum in Bolzano, and Original Heide at the entrance to the Val Gardena. In Santa Cristina Valgardena, you can find the world's largest hand-carved nativity scene.

How to get there: The Stabinger Collection is located in the Hotel Mondschein in San Vito Sesto. Parking and bus connections, such as line 446 from San Candido, are available.