San Candido / Innichen: Hotels, B&B, Residence and holiday apartments

San Candido is an autonomic province of Bolzano and has a very convenient position, in the centre of the nature park of the Dolomites. As well as the near Sesto, San Candido belongs to the hydro-graphic Donau-Pool and therefore the population speaks predominantly German as mother tongue. The Alta Val Pusteria has always been an important intersection; one of the biggest Romanic roads, which since 2000 years runs through the Val Pusteria, is crossed by the medieval commercial route the "Strada d’Alemagna". Since 769 AD, the year in which San Candido was first recorded, a religious centre under the bishop of Freisingen has been developed here. The dependence on the oldest Bavarian diocese of Freisingen continued over one millennium, up to 1803. This long history is visible all over, in the old lanes, historical buildings, antique tables/benches in the parlours and in the Romanic collegiate church. This church (zu den heiligen Candidus und Korbinian) is the most important Romanic church construction in the whole Tyrolean area and is located next to the "Granaio del Capitolo", one of the oldest houses of the Alta Val Pusteria, where nowadays the collegiate museum is located. Further lovely and worthwhile seeing churches are: the parish church of San Michele from the 12. century, which has been several times destroyed, the Altöttinger – and grave church to San Candido and the St. Sepolcro, which was built in the year 1653 as a miniature copy of the holy St. "Sepolcro sul Calvario" of Jerusalem; the church of the Franziskaner cloister, with a view to the river Sesto, which was constructed at the end of the 16. century. Even culturally San Candido has a lot to offer like exhibitions, competitions and concerts, which take place in the cultural centre Josef Resch, whereas next door one can visit the Dolomythos, a permanent exhibition of the Dolomites as living and cultural environment with fossils, minerals, myths and sagas. Really close to San Candido, between forests at the foot of the Rocca delle Baranci (Haunoldgroup), you find the lake of San Candido and the sparkling springs rich of sulphates and minerals. In a saga there have been giants in the peaks of the Haunoldgroup who were up to mischiefs. One of these giants, Haunold, helped the inhabitants with the construction of their church and in return he requested daily a big meal. After the completion of the construction he still insisted on his meals but the inhabitants decided to set a trap. And so it happened that he fell to death and as evidence you can still see one rib of his in the collegiate church. Thanks to the beautiful ski slopes in the mountains Haunold and Helm and the cross-country slopes up to Sesto and Dobbiaco, and from there to Cortina and Monguelfo and Valdaora, the winter tourism developed enormously. During summer San Candido is a perfect starting point for excursions to the Tre Scarperi (Dreischuster hut) and the Tre Cime di Lavaredo (three peaks) and also for bicycle tours on the cycle track to Lienz ( cycle track Dobbiaco – Lienz), with various levels of difficulties. In San Candido there are two world-famous companies, one famous for the production of smoked ham and the other one for mineral water.