The Ritten Train

The Ritten railway opened for service on 13th August 1907, at that time connecting the main square of Bozen, the Waltherplatz with Klobenstein, making Ritten easily accessible for tourism.

In 1907 a narrow gouge railway was completed from the centre of Bozen to Klobenstein, dropping the cog engine required for the steep 1000-meter ascent of the mountain. In Maria Himmelfahrt and continuing as a tramway, which still is in use today, to Oberbozen and Klobenstein. The railway brought such guests as Sigmund Freud, who celebrated his silverwedding at Bemelman’s hotel in Klobenstein, and Bronislaw Malinowski, considered by many the father of modern anthropology, who bought a house in oberbozen and lived there until 1939.

The writer Hans von Hoffensthal, who was bor on the Ritten, claimed when it was opened that the introduction of the railway changed the character of the Ritten for ever, but the complention of a paved road in 1971 brought further changes, and in 1966 the cog railway gave way to a cable car from Bozen to Oberbozen. Many people now use the cable car or highway to commute to and from Bozen in daili modern variation on the old June to September "Sommerfrische".