Stabinger Nativity Scene Collection

A far-reaching experience in 1906 laid the foundation of the today's Stabinger Nativity Scene Collection - "Krippensammlung Stabinger" in German, "Collezione di Presepi Stabinger" in Italian - in San Vito Sesto in the Upper Val Pusteria. At that time the baker and innkeeper Anton Stabinger went on a pilgrimage to Palestine. From there he brought sketches with him and dedicated himself to the very special craft of building nativity scenes and Easter cribs in the following decades. Contemporary wood carvers made the magnificent crib figures.

His grandson, Anton Stabinger, finally restored and completed the cribs and made them accessible to the public. The first crib was destroyed in WWI, while the second has been preserved and shows more than 1,000 figures. In the Hotel Mondschein in Sesto today you can see four panoramic cribs which are 2 metres high, as well as various beautiful Tyrolean cribs.

In South Tyrol there are three more collections: The Maranatha Nativity Scene Museum is located in the Valle Aurina, in addition there is the Nativity Scene Museum at the Muri-Gries Monastery in Bolzano and the Original Heide Museum at the entrance of the Val Gardena valley. There, more precisely in Santa Cristina, there is the world's largest hand-carved nativity scene. And how to reach the Stabinger Collection? The Hotel Mondschein is located in the Via Dolomiti road in Sesto. Parking facilities and bus connections are available, e.g. bus line 446 from San Candido.