Freienbühel - Collle Libero

From Hexenbühel (Witches‘ Hill) to Freienbühel (Free Hill)

An ancient and long out of print scripture by Josef Bonnell, a former district school inspector in the city of Bressanone, (published and printed in 1942 by Weger, Bressanone), narrates how the Freienbühel (literally translated: Free Hill) received its name.

According to this tale, it started around the year 1713, when a young orphan girl named Balbina came from the Ladin area across the Passo delle Erbe to the farm Pedaferer Hof, where she was taken into care and grew up. Since she was friendly, diligent and above all religious, she was respected throughout the village – and soon she was very well-liked. However, she kept a secret that lay in her origins. She was the child of a woman accused of being a witch. Therefore, some people, who back then were witchcraft-crazed, considered the child a witch as well. Despite this blemish, Balbina married a wealthy farmer's son, became a peasant, had three children and lived for several years happily with her ​​young family in Eores.

To put an end to the witch mania, she asked her husband to put up a shrine with a picture of the Virgin Mary on the so-called "Hexenbühel" (literally translated: Witches’ Hill) just above the village of Eores. In order to be able to look down on the city of Bressanone with its churches and the Episcopal see, the space around the shrine had to be cleared from certain trees. The shrine and the image of the Virgin Mary were thus supposed to transform the former "Hexenbühel" into a sacred place, "Maria Hilf on the Freienbühel" - in the hope of purging the superstitious beliefs in witches and demons. Yet, even before the farmer could grant his wife her wish, the plague broke out in Eores, killing many folks, and some people in Eores started to blame this tragedy on the alleged witch Balbina.

The husband, all three children and many villagers died within a short time. Although Balbina nursed her family and affected neighbours with selfless devotion, she finally was also infected, but was able to recover from the disease with pain and misery. Due to despair, envy and resentment spread in the community, and their homestead fell victim to arson. Balbina died while she praying in front of her venerated image of the Virgin Mary, which for the time being had been attached to a tree on the hill – according to the literary narrative.

In the addendum, the author further reports that the said shrine was inaugurated with large participation of the villagers on Assumption Day (August 15^th). In the decades that followed, the location became a revered place of pilgrimage, as the numerous votive tablets (one of the oldest from 1757) confirm. However, until after the Napoleonic wars in the late 18^thand early 19^thcenturies, the maintenance of the wayside shrine had been neglected, until the then curate Peter Tengler ordered to build the present chapel in that location. The damaged image was replaced by a sculpture (Madonna with Child).

In 1813, the new chapel was inaugurated with large attendance, and since then enjoys widespread popularity not only as a place of pilgrimage but also as a hiking destination for pleasant walks. As the author reports, a farmer from Rutzenberg in S. Andrea has build the path on this side of the mountain (today Trail No. 5) – manually and in a exemplary way – so even the people of S. Andrea can now visit the chapel at the Freienbühel.

For some 15 years, every year on the first Sunday in July, a pilgrimage of the faithful of Eores and S. Andrea takes place. Every Saturday of the month, a pilgrimage is organized starting from Eores. The shrine is particularly revered by those who returned from the last world war, who here before their deployment prayed for a happy homecoming. Since 2005, the church is a historical monument.

florhelbx, translation by Plose AG

On the northern outer wall of the chapel, there is a commemorative plaque in memory of a personality connected with the place and with Brixen. Use the year of birth and the death year to determine the target coordinates.

Target coordinates:

N 46°40, (year of birth - 1419) E 011°41, (year of death - 1569)