Madonna di Campiglio
The first written documents that mention Madonna di Campiglio place the town’s foundation at around 1190; at that time a monk named Raimondo decided to found a monastery/hospice for wayfarers to atone for his sins.
The monastery/hospice grew rapidly, with prior priests at the helm (among others, Prior Lombardo in 1234, Prior Federico in 1292, and Prior Bartolomeo in 1315). At the height of its activities, in around 1450, the monastery was home to 20 monks and 5 nuns. It was well-known in the region and, thanks to charitable donations from worshippers, became rather wealthy.
When it was closed in 1515, Campiglio entered a long period of decline until 1868, when Giovanni Battista Righi, a businessman from Rendena, bought the ruins from the Chapter of the Cathedral of Trento, the owner up until then of what remained of the old Trentino institute. With Righi – the founder of the ‘Stabilimento Alpino’, the first modern hotel in the town – Campiglio was given a new lease of life.
Giovanni Battista Righi was also responsible, between 1874 and 1875, entirely at his own expense and against the will of his contemporaries, for building the ‘old road’, the first road suitable for vehicles linking Campiglio with Pinzolo and the rest of the world. Righi was succeeded by Franz Josef Oesterreicher, under whom Campiglio became the preferred destination of the European and Hapsburg aristocracy at the end of the 19th century.
