The Paul Troger Tour shows you the birthplace and the famous “Troger Blue” colour of the baroque painter from Monguelfo
The year is 1698, when a sacristan and tailor in Monguelfo (Welsberg) welcomes a son and names him Paul: No one knows at that time that he was to become a virtuoso painter who, after attending the school of painting in Cavalese in Trentino, was to study with the greatest artists in Italy, such as Giambattista Piazzetta of Venice, Francesco Solimena of Naples and Tommaso Conca of Rome. After his time as rector at the famous Vienna Academy of Arts, he created valuable works in the great monasteries between Austria, Slovakia and Hungary. When Paul Troger died in Vienna in 1762, the high time of the Austrian Baroque had passed.
Today the circular walk known as Paul Troger Tour shows you, among other things, his birthplace and the three works on the high altar of the St. Margaret Parish Church. It stands in the middle of the idyllic village centre here at the entrance to the Casies Valley. At one end of the village is the panoramic outdoor pool, at the other the station of the Val Pusteria Railway. The colourful trains also take you to the neighbouring village of Valdaora, where the lifts start to the Plan de Corones Ski Area and hiking paradise. The view stretches from the village to the mighty Dolomites.
A mighty castle will probably soon catch your eye: It is the venerable Welsperg or Monguelfo Castle, which has guarded the village for almost a millennium. The complex is enthroned on a rock that drops steeply on three sides to the Rio Casies and can be visited in summer. The Castle Path leads directly there from the centre of the village. The "Pusterbike" cycle track, the cross-country skiing network between Monguelfo and the Val Casies and the Bad Waldbrunn sledge run, which offers a special holiday experience with an evening of moonlight tobogganing, complete the offer.
