Stabinger nativity scene collection in Sesto
In the beginning was the adventure…
Actually, young Anton was supposed to help his father bake bread and work with dough and flour – but even then, this young lad had his mind on other things. He had discovered a much nicer hobby, namely creating nativity scenes. In every free minute (when he was not in the bakery) he tinkered with his creations.
He had found his passion …
You can now admire this passion all year round in our Hotel Mondschein in Sexten. This is where one of the most beautiful and famous nativity exhibitions in South Tyrol can be found.
And the story of its creation is anything but boring! If we could travel back in time, then we would probably have arrived in 1906, and could watch the baker and innkeeper Anton turn his back on his home business, and set off on a pilgrimage to Palestine. At that time, a real pioneering achievement. After 20 days he returned to the Hochpustertal with a head full of new ideas, sparkling eyes and precise sketches of sacred sites. In his workshop he built grandiose, oriental nativity scenes true to the original using craftsmanship and artistic skill. The first oriental nativity scene did not survive the First World War, but the others that you can see today in our collection of nativity scenes in South Tyrol are more impressive than ever: They comprise over 1000 nativity figures! The magnificent nativity figures and groups of figures were made by the contemporary woodcarvers Seisl, Gwercher, Speckbacher, Spiegl from North Tyrol and Josef Tschurtschenthaler from Sexten.
It is thanks to Anton Stabinger junior, the grandson of the Jerusalem pilgrim, that his grandfather’s nativity scenes once again shine in all their glory. Through years of painstaking work, he restored the scenes, added to them and made them accessible to the public.
The collection includes four magnificent panoramic scenes (all measuring approx. 4-5m x 2m) with a classical oriental character, and various Tyrolean scenes by Sexten scene builders with their own unique charm. And you stand and marvel and become enchanted by the moving spectacle behind glass …
from mid-June to mid-October and from Christmas to mid-April
