Sanctuary of San Romedio

According to legend, Romedius lived in the 4th and 5th centuries, the heir of a rich Bavarian family, son of the Count of Thaur, the lord of a castle near Innsbruck and owner of salt pans in the valley of the River Inn.

After a pilgrimage to Rome, he gave all his possessions to the Church, withdrawing into a hermitage in the Val di Non in some grottoes which still exist near the sanctuary.

The legend is that one day Romedius, wishing to go to Trento to greet Vigilius, then bishop of that city, asked David to saddle the horse.

[2] The existence of the hermit, a member of an aristocratic Bavarian family, can be dated to the first decades of the 11th century, about the same time as the development of his cultus.

[3] The rock which bore the old sanctuary remained bare for another 500 years or so, with an open flight of steps and a few small huts long since gone.

[5] This is a typical comital or baronial chapel of the region, still in Clesian Gothic style despite the late date, with a barrel vault.

In 1700 the sanctuary celebrated the visit of the last pilgrim to the threshold of the tomb of Saint Romedius before it was closed for extensive renovations.

In the larger church of Saint Romedius the altarpiece shows the hermit himself with the bear on a leash, while the frescoes on the walls depict the Twelve Apostles, the Annunciation and the Assumption.

The sanctuary is accessible by car via Sanzeno, or on foot along the sentiero delle forre di San Romedio, an arduous route along a former aqueduct constructed in the mid-19th century for irrigation, recently converted into a very steep footpath over the sheer ravine wall.