Merano
Discover Merano
A concise introduction to Merano, its geography, history and culture.
Introduction
Merano lies at about 325 metres where the Passer comes out of the mountains to join the Adige, with roughly forty-one thousand inhabitants.
It was the capital of the County of Tyrol until 1420, and Schloss Tirol, the castle that gave the county its name, stands above the town at Tirolo.
From 1836 Merano developed as a spa town, and the visits of Empress Elisabeth of Austria in 1870 and 1889 made it fashionable across the empire. The Kurhaus, the covered promenades and the grand hotels date from that period.
The Tappeiner Promenade, laid out from 1893, runs four kilometres along the hillside above the roofs with Mediterranean planting the whole way.
The gardens of Trauttmansdorff Castle, opened in 2001, hold a botanic collection across twelve hectares and a museum of tourism inside the castle.
The town is close to evenly split between German and Italian speakers.