Prad am Stilfserjoch
The village at the foot of the Stilfserjoch
Our little village of Prad is situated in the middle of the National Park Stilfserjoch. Small but nice shops and restaurants provide a bustling village life. Here children still play outside in front of the house or meet like-minded ones at their favourite places, at the streamlet or in the forest.
Prad is an ideal starting point for different activities. Numerous hiking paths start directly in front of our hotel, so your own car can enjoy a holiday too. Those who prefer a cycling trip with one of our rental bikes can easily reach the famous cycling path “Via Claudia Augusta” at the end of the village. However, here you must take the decision whether to ride up to the Reschen Pass or down to the spa-town of Meran.
Prad itself offers much diversity: from the visitor centre Aquaprad with its living aquarium exhibition of local fish species, Waalwege (paths along water irrigation channels) and adventure trails, fishponds, to baking bread at the farm Winklhof, about 5 minutes walk away from our hotel.
Among the churches that are especially worth seeing is the Romanesque church of St. Johann, which was built at the end of the 13th century by the Counts of the Tschenglsburg. The cemetery has been abandoned, except the honorary grave of the German botanist Hermann Müller who died during an expedition journey in Prad. An orchid species (Müllers Stendelwurz) was named after him. The church can be visited only with a guide.
Also worth seeing is the Gothic Church of St. Georg in Agums, with the “Great God”, a 4-meter-high crucifix on whose corpus, in the years the Spanish war of succession, there were observed “sweatings”, declaring it a church of pilgrimage.