St. Jakob in Söles

The small Romanesque church of St. Jakob lies on an obscure alluvial fan between Glorenza/Glurns and Prato/Prad in the Vinschgau Valley. Hidden at the edge of the forest, not far from the Söleshof farmstead, the chapel isn’t so easy to find. It once fell on one of the old pilgrimage routes, on the way to the Wormser Joch mountain ridge in the direction of Bormio.

The farnstead was first mentioned in a document in 1178, kept in the Marienberg Abbey archives. Since that time, St. Jakob was caught up in a series of tumultuous events. In 1499, the church was set on fire by the Bündners during the Battle of Calven, and was later shut down in 1766 by Joseph II during the Enlightenment. Shortly after, in 1799, the church was burned down once again.

Archaeological excavations carried out in church ruins revealed some astonishing findings. Numerous fragments of Romanesque frescoes were recovered and then reassembled. The frescoes, dating back to around 1200, are in astonishingly good condition. Experts believe that the Byzantine-influenced paintings are the work of the same master-painter responsible for the frescoes in Marienberg Abbey.