Bruneck

Bruneck lies in the Puster Valley beneath a castle built by Bruno von Kirchberg, prince-bishop of Brixen. First recorded as Bruneke in 1256, the town initially consisted of two rows of houses along a narrow street. Its walls and moat were completed by 1336. Goods travelling between Augsburg and Venice passed through the valley, and merchants stored wares in Bruneck's square. The resulting prosperity helped support a local school of painting associated with Hans von Bruneck and the Pacher family.

The Puster Valley passed to the Habsburgs in 1500, but Bruneck remained a possession of the bishops of Brixen. It became a parish in its own right in 1610, and Capuchin friars founded a monastery in 1626. A great fire swept through much of the town in 1723. During the Napoleonic wars Bruneck escaped physical destruction, but the cost of lodging and feeding passing soldiers left it heavily indebted.