A place of power and panoramic views: Gaze down into the Adige Valley from Narano’s St. Hippolytus hill
Image gallery: Narano
Where the Tesimo industrial area ends, the village road meets the Passo Palade road, a popular route for motorcyclists and mountain bikers. The houses around this intersection belong to the small village of Narano. This is also a bus stop, bringing hikers from the Adige Valley up to the high plateau of the Tesimo mid-mountain range, from where many paths lead through the surrounding forests. One of the most beautiful hikes starts at the St. Hippolytus car park in Narano (Naraun).
The wide forest road follows the contemplative path with its numerous bronze reliefs and leads you steadily uphill towards St. Hippolytus. After about 20 minutes, you reach the panoramic hill, known as the "Royal Lodge of the Burgraviato", with the Church of St. Hippolytus, whose frescoes are among the oldest in South Tyrol. Behind the church and the inn of the same name, the Adige Valley lies at your feet. Your gaze sweeps from the Texel Group near Merano to Bolzano.
If you go left down into the woods from the car park, you will reach the Narano Pond, a biotope with bog water at the foot of a climbing wall. Narano is considered one of South Tyrol's oldest settlements. The hill of St. Hippolytus was already settled in the Neolithic period.
Finds such as arrowheads and brooches remain from the Bronze and Iron Ages. If you look closely at the round rocks on the hill, you will discover depressions - known as cup-marked stones - whose meaning is not fully understood. Narano was also probably the site of the Lombard fort Tesana, destroyed by the Franks in 590 AD. It is thought to be the origin of the municipality of Tesimo.
