SHARRYLAND
Where is
What it is and where it is
Piazza is one of the eight hamlets of Garniga Terme, a tiny mountain municipality of 372 inhabitants, located 810 meters above sea level in the autonomous province of Trento. The location is, as one might presume from the place name, a site that offers the opportunity to spend one's free time in the warm thermal waters.
Why it is special
You arrive in Garniga by way of a scenic road from which you can enjoy a stunning view of the Adige Valley. Once you park in front of Hotel Miramonti, in the hamlet of Piazza, a small lake on the other side of the road attracts your attention. You wander into the small park and notice that on top of a small rise is the Church of the Heart of Jesus, white, silhouetted against a very blue sky. From the square in front of the church, past the war memorial, you find yourself overlooking the hamlets below, surrounded by mountain peaks overhanging the Adige Valley. The feeling of enchantment at the beauty of the landscape is soon joined by a bit of vertigo! All normal-you realize you are in a historic hamlet built on top of the mountains.
Don't miss
The spa. All around is a vast natural garden consisting of a mix of alpine herbs recognized for valuable qualities and used for phytobalneotherapy, better known as the practice of "grass baths." The main ailments for which these baths are indicated can be of various kinds and nature: from carpal tunnel syndrome to muscle spasms.
A bit of history
The most frequent (and convenient) version of the interpretation of the toponym Garniga is the one that has it derived from the German "gar nichts," a compound word meaning "just nothing." In fact, between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, a group of German miners is documented to have passed through the area, who were tasked with sounding out the terrain and seeing if there might be mines to profit from. The result of the search was negative, so the miners claimed that there was nothing there at all, "gar nichts" in their language. However, some of them settled there, gradually turning into farmers, loggers, hunters and shepherds.
Curiosities
The choice of interior decoration of the Church of the Heart of Jesus is interesting. In a historic village, probably dating back to the 12th-13th centuries, strongly anchored in tradition and history, in 2006 Trento architect Michele Enderle decided to provide a very modern layout to the interior structure, depriving it of altars or other historic furnishings. In this way it takes on the connotations of a church similar to modern U.S. evangelical churches. In short, a contemporary work of art installed in a country of ancient origins. Brilliant!
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