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.