The Sterzing / Vipiteno Swamp

The basin of Sterzing was once covered with an enormous swamp that extended towards the south to Trens and to the east to Wiesen. It was the bottom of a lake that had formed in prehistoric times, fed by local springs, which became a swamp and gradually emptied.

The legend that surrounds the Swamp of Sterzing is still told: In ancient times it frequently happened that young women's beauty went to their heads. Regardless of whoever asked their hand in marriage, nobody seemed to be good enough for them. But as the years passed, their beauty waned and they became horrible old maids. In order to punish them for being so pride, they were exiled to live in the Sterzing Swamp, where they cried bitterly for not having wed; and their laments can still be heard today: "hätt' i's gwaggt, hätt' is gwaggt..." (if only I had accepted, if only I had accepted), which only foreigners confuse with the croaking of the frogs, but they are actually the lamenting cries of the old maids.