Merano

People have lived in the basin since the third millennium BC, as menhirs and other finds show. The town's story began in 15 BC, when the Romans occupied the Adige valley and set up a road station, Statio Maiensis; the settlement was first recorded as Mairania in 857. In the 13th century the counts of Tyrol, from their castle on the hill above, raised Merano to the status of a town and made it the capital of their county.

After the county passed to the Habsburgs in 1363, Duke Friedrich IV moved the court to Innsbruck in 1420, and the mint followed to Hall in 1477. Merano stayed the official capital until 1848 but lost most of its importance. During the Tyrolean Rebellion of 1809 a peasant army won a victory over French and Bavarian forces on the Küchelberg above the town before the revolt was crushed.

The 19th century remade the town. Its mild climate turned it into a renowned spa of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, especially after Empress Elisabeth began to visit, and the Kurhaus, the theatre, the promenades and the racecourse were built for the guests, who included Franz Kafka. After the First World War the town passed to Italy, and the Fascist authorities built a new town hall in the 1920s. During the Nazi occupation of 1943–45 Merano's Jewish population was almost entirely deported and murdered. Since then the town has grown into the second city of South Tyrol and a centre of tourism once more.

Merano blends Austrian and Italian heritage more evenly than almost anywhere in South Tyrol: since 2024 a slim majority of residents speak Italian as their first language, with German close behind and a tiny Ladin minority. The spa years still set the tone, with summer concerts on the promenade almost every day, the Kurhaus as the town's great hall and the Meraner Musikwochen, a music festival held since 1986.

The calendar mixes the elegant and the local. The Gran Premio Merano each September is Italy's best-known steeplechase, and the Merano WineFestival, held at the Kurhaus every November since 1993, is one of Italy's leading wine and food fairs. The Asfaltart street-art festival and the Christmas market also return every year, and every second year the town hosts the Merano Poetry Prize.

Chess has a special place: the Meran Variation of the Semi-Slav Defence is named after a game played at a tournament here in 1924, and in 1981 the town hosted the World Championship match between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi, later the setting for the first act of the musical Chess. The town has also hosted canoe slalom world championships on the Passer, and its handball club won the national title in 2005.

About 41,700 people lived in Merano at the end of 2025, roughly half German- and half Italian-speaking, making it the second-largest city in South Tyrol after Bolzano. The town spreads across the basin from the old centre to residential Obermais and Untermais, while villages such as Tirol, Schenna and Algund climb the slopes around it.

Tourism is the main business, especially with German and Italian visitors, and spa hotels and guesthouses shape the economy. Vineyards reach into the town itself, extensive apple orchards fill the valley floor, and the apples are exported throughout Europe. The Forst brewery on the edge of town is one of the best-known local firms.

The pace is unhurried. Residents walk the promenades, meet in the cafés of the Laubengasse and head for the hills above the town at weekends, to the Meran 2000 area for walking in summer and skiing in winter. Public transport links the town with Bolzano and the Vinschgau, and in 2019 Merano tested Italy's first self-driving electric bus.

Merano eats as South Tyrol does, where the Tyrolean and Italian kitchens meet, and its cafés and restaurants serve both. Menus in the old town lean on Knödel dumplings, Schlutzkrapfen — half-moon pasta filled with cheese, spinach or mushrooms — and Speck Alto Adige, a dry-cured, lightly smoked ham with protected status, alongside pizza and pasta. Kaiserschmarrn, a shredded sweet pancake, is a favourite dessert.

Wine matters more here than in most towns. Vineyards come right into the town, and the local Meraner Leiten, or Meranese di collina, is a light red wine best drunk young. Every November the Merano WineFestival brings producers from across Italy and abroad to the Kurhaus for five days of tastings, and food producers join them.

Apples from the extensive orchards around the town turn up in strudel, juice and on market stalls, and beer has a strong local tradition: the Forst brewery, founded in 1857 by two entrepreneurs from Merano, produces a popular range of beers sold throughout Italy and Europe.