Palmschoß - Rosa Alpina

The dream of an Austrian Davos

The superb location of the village is impossible to ignore, and you will purely enjoy the panoramic vista on the mountains. What you will not see at first glance and what makes the present circumstances in fact explicable is the long history of the building this cache is dedicated to; it will be shortly described hereafter.

It began around the second last turn of the century, when South Tyrol still belonged to the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Back then, the endemic disease TBC - due to the widespread unhealthy living conditions (mainly in terms of drinking water supply and sanitation) – caused countless casualties in all social classes. Penicillin had not been discovered yet, and an effective cure against the bacterial infectious disease TBC did not exist. Thus, the only therapy consisted in a healthy, invigorating diet and sun baths in fresh, oxygen-rich air.

"... so far, we are completely lacking one thing, although the preconditions for it are available, just like in other mountainous countries, which is an all year round sun and high altitude health resort in the high mountain region," states the explanatory publication for the construction of a sanatorium for lung diseases in Plancios. "The fact that we clearly need an institution like this is given emphasis to by thousands of Austrians, who every year visit foreign mountain resorts; but also foreigners – alone 11,000 Germans spent almost half a million board days in Davos in 1912 ..., would certainly come and visit an Austrian resort..."

That was the Austrian challenge against the monopoly of Swiss mountain resorts.

However, the dream of an "Austrian Davos" slid into the "seminal European catastrophe of the 20^thcentury”: the First World War. In order to keep the peace project alive, it was initially renamed a military home for tubercular war victims and soldiers.

A special commission was sent out to determine the sunshine periods of suitable locations and to compare them with those of Davos in Switzerland. In Davos, from November 1912 to March 1913, roundabout 589 hours of sunshine were measured – in Plancios, on the other hand, during the same time period, 798 hours could be verified. The true trump card was, however, the unique mountain scenery, the view over the Eores and Funes Odle Peaks in the southeast, as well as on the Adamello, Brenta and Ortles groups in the southwest. The planned large venture, nevertheless, also profited from the fact that at the same time in Bressanone - with the legendary mayor Dr. Otto von Guggenberg - the project to build a cable car to Mount Plose was being discussed.

For the large-scale project, on November 12^th1912, the "Tyrolean People's Association for the fight against tuberculosis in Tyrol and Vorarlberg" ("Tiroler Volksverein zur Bekämpfung der Tuberkulose in Tirol und Vorarlberg") was founded.

"The classic health resorts with their ambivalent lifestyle, the intertwining of being cured and escaping into disease – as meticulously observed and transposed on a philosophical level by Thomas Mann –, a perfect world ambiance and decadent culture fatigue, ghettos for the moribund and doomed, and exceedingly elegant venues with their rituals and their social ceremony that took place in the salons between the obligatory rest cures, walks and evening entertainment - all these factors ​​could turn a spa and health resort into a prime tourist potential."

Without World War I, who knows, maybe Thomas Mann's novel "The Magic Mountain" would have been located in Plancios, and Franz Kafka would have sojourned here rather than in Merano – but it turned out differently.

On the eve of the signing of the Austrian "ceasefire" or rather the surrender (November 3^rd, 1918 - Villa Giusti), the imperial governor general (Innsbruck) in a last petition to the imperial Ministry in Vienna spoke for the acquisition of several farms in order to supply the sanatorium with fresh foods (eggs, milk and butter). In fact, the Eores farms Pedaferer, Perkölber and Zulehen were purchased. In the early 1990s, they were bought back by the long-lasting tenants.

After the separation of the southern part of Tyrol and its annexation to Italy, the plot of land and the only two buildings ever built were taken over by the state. In the following years, the main building was primarily used in the summer months by the Italian Pontifical Relief Organization as a holiday camp. In the 1980s, the property – now under South Tyrolean monumental protection – was devolved to the region, from which the current owners could buy it at the beginning of the 1990s, remodelling it into the present hotel building.

On the image you may see how big the sanatorium was supposed to be, and what was in actual fact built and still exists today.

Source: Eisenbahnlandschaft Alt-Tirol ... author: Elisabeth Baumgartner – State Library Landesbibliothek Dr. F. Tessmann Translation in english by Plose Ski AG