Near Rio Molino, one of the most remote holiday villages in the Valli di Tures and Aurina valleys, is the highest sweat bath in the region
Image gallery: Rio Molino di Gais
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The small Valle di Rio Molino branches off at Gais village and is home to only a few people. For a long time, Gais determined church life: The people of Rio Molino (Mühlbach) had to go there, on foot of course, for church services and were also buried there. Only in the last century a road was built. Today, the idyllic village lies on the sunny slope above the Brunico valley basin.
It is an impressive location, especially the church seems to cling to the hillside. The large church dedicated to the Fourteen Auxiliary Saints is considered a pilgrimage church and lies below the village centre with the inn, the presbytery and the primary school. The Rio Molino Church Singers, who help to organise the church services, are one of the few lay choirs still in existence today.
The Valle di Rio Molino mountain pastures are a special destination. One of the enchanting wooden huts there housed the Rio Molino Bath, called Mühlbacher Badl, the highest natural bath in the Val Pusteria. Here, in the middle of the Vedrette di Ries-Aurina Nature Park at about 1,700 m a.s.l., attempts were made to alleviate illnesses of the digestive organs in wooden tubs. The bath remained extremely popular until the 1960s, but then it burnt down and was only partially rebuilt. A mountain tour takes you from here to the summit of Mt. Cima del Vento.
