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Drone footage looking north: the timber houses of the upper part of Borgata Bach, the meadow rising to the spruce and larch forest and, above, the pale rock of the sunny slope.

The hamlets

The valley from west to east

Sappada's 15 hamlets stand in a row on the sunny side of the valley, from Lerpa to Cima Sappada: 4.2 km as the crow flies, 5.1 km by road. Here they all are, with their altitude and their hours of sun on 21 December: the day when the difference between one hamlet and the next is greatest.

hamlets, Cima Sappada included
15
of direct sun on 21 December, from the hamlet with the least to the one with the most
1 h 15 min to 5 h 30 min
between the centre of the lowest hamlet and that of the highest
1,214 m to 1,297 m

Real footage · SappadaTriesteVillas, drone footage, spring 2026

The basin on 21 December

The shadow of Monte Siera works like a sundial

On the shortest day the first sun reaches Pill at about 9:45 and Soravia at about 12:15: in between, the shadow of Monte Siera slides from west to east along the row of hamlets. Change the time and watch it move; hover over a hamlet in the list to find it on the relief.

Relief of the Sappada basin seen from the south, with the mountains' shadows over the hamlets on 21 December

Shadows calculated on the ten-metre terrain model: trees and buildings are not included. Relief: TINITALY/INGV (CC BY 4.0) and Copernicus DEM · Map: © OpenStreetMap contributors

You can turn the relief with the mouse or a finger, and pick the hamlets by name. Sun and shadows are a calculation on the terrain model.

Which part of the valley

  1. LerpaLèrpa

    The western gateway, the most recent

    Altitude
    1,220 m
    Sun, 21 Dec
    4 h 25 min
    First light
    10:20

  2. GranvillaDorf

    The “village” of the church

    Altitude
    1,243 m
    Sun, 21 Dec
    4 h 40 min
    First light
    10:00

  3. PalùMoss

    Low down, between the church and the centre

    Altitude
    1,214 m
    Sun, 21 Dec
    3 h 55 min
    First light
    9:30

  4. PillPihl

    The knoll above the centre

    Altitude
    1,251 m
    Sun, 21 Dec
    5 h 30 min
    First light
    9:45

  5. BachPòch

    The centre, along the road

    Altitude
    1,254 m
    Sun, 21 Dec
    5 h 20 min
    First light
    10:00

  6. MühlbachMilpa

    The threshold of Sappada Vecchia

    Altitude
    1,243 m
    Sun, 21 Dec
    4 h 55 min
    First light
    10:30

  7. CotternKòttern

    Small, high up, among the meadows

    Altitude
    1,269 m
    Sun, 21 Dec
    4 h 45 min
    First light
    10:45

  8. HoffeHouve

    The cluster around the small square

    Altitude
    1,247 m
    Sun, 21 Dec
    4 h
    First light
    11:15

  9. FontanaPrunn

    Where the timber is densest

    Altitude
    1,246 m
    Sun, 21 Dec
    3 h 40 min
    First light
    11:35

  10. KrattenKrotn

    Where Sappada 2000 starts

    Altitude
    1,253 m
    Sun, 21 Dec
    3 h 25 min
    First light
    11:50

  11. SoraviaBegar

    Open, between two lifts

    Altitude
    1,248 m
    Sun, 21 Dec
    3 h
    First light
    12:15

  12. EccheEkke

    The detached knoll

    Altitude
    1,270 m
    Sun, 21 Dec
    2 h 50 min
    First light
    10:25

  13. PuichePuicha

    The smallest, the most isolated

    Altitude
    1,270 m
    Sun, 21 Dec
    3 h
    First light
    10:25

  14. CrettaKrètte

    On the valley floor, with the house museum

    Altitude
    1,253 m
    Sun, 21 Dec
    1 h 15 min
    First light
    10:55

  15. Cima SappadaZepodn

    A village within the village

    Altitude
    1,297 m
    Sun, 21 Dec
    2 h 10 min
    First light
    9:35

The sun

The hamlets in order of sunlight, on 21 December

Direct sun at the centre of each hamlet on the shortest day of the year: that is when the difference between one hamlet and the next is greatest.

  1. 01PillPihl5 h 30 minAltitude1,251 mFirst light9:4521 January5 h 45 min
  2. 02BachPòch5 h 20 minAltitude1,254 mFirst light10:0021 January5 h 35 min
  3. 03MühlbachMilpa4 h 55 minin spellsAltitude1,243 mFirst light10:3021 January5 h 10 min
  4. 04CotternKòttern4 h 45 minAltitude1,269 mFirst light10:4521 January4 h 55 min
  5. 05GranvillaDorf4 h 40 minin spellsAltitude1,243 mFirst light10:0021 January6 h
  6. 06LerpaLèrpa4 h 25 minAltitude1,220 mFirst light10:2021 January5 h 05 min
  7. 07HoffeHouve4 hin spellsAltitude1,247 mFirst light11:1521 January4 h 35 min
  8. 08PalùMoss3 h 55 minin spellsAltitude1,214 mFirst light9:3021 January6 h
  9. 09FontanaPrunn3 h 40 minAltitude1,246 mFirst light11:3521 January4 h 30 min
  10. 10KrattenKrotn3 h 25 minAltitude1,253 mFirst light11:5021 January4 h 15 min
  11. 11PuichePuicha3 hin spellsAltitude1,270 mFirst light10:2521 January6 h 25 min
  12. 12SoraviaBegar3 hAltitude1,248 mFirst light12:1521 January4 h 05 min
  13. 13EccheEkke2 h 50 minin spellsAltitude1,270 mFirst light10:2521 January5 h 20 min
  14. 14Cima SappadaZepodn2 h 10 minin spellsAltitude1,297 mFirst light9:3521 January5 h
  15. 15CrettaKrètte1 h 15 minin spellsAltitude1,253 mFirst light10:5521 January5 h 45 min

The black whisker is the range across the mapped buildings of the hamlet: where it is long, the sun varies a great deal from one house to the next.

A month later the order is different: on 21 January Puiche comes first. “The sunniest hamlet”, said without the month, means nothing. Over the whole year the hamlets are almost level: the difference lies entirely in the weeks around the winter solstice.

MethodA calculation, not a measurement: terrain model at 10 m, clear sky, the centre of the hamlet with the eye 6 m above the ground. Trees and buildings are not counted; times are rounded to five minutes and, where the sun skims a ridge, they can shift by ten to twenty.

Sources and details of the calculation

Times are Italian local time (summer time from late March to late October), calculated for the year 2027; the sun counts as present when the centre of its disc is above the ridge. On 21 September the sun's path is almost the same as on 21 March, an hour later by the clock. Calculated on 7 October 2026.

  • Tarquini S., I. Isola, M. Favalli, A. Battistini, G. Dotta (2023). TINITALY, a digital elevation model of Italy with a 10 meters cell size (Version 1.1). Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV). doi.org/10.13127/tinitaly/1.1
  • produced using Copernicus WorldDEM-30 © DLR e.V. 2010-2014 and © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH 2014-2018 provided under COPERNICUS by the European Union and ESA; all rights reserved
  • Borgate e cime: © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0 — www.openstreetmap.org/copyright
  • Posizione del sole: NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory, Solar Calculator (gml.noaa.gov/grad/solcalc/), da J. Meeus, «Astronomical Algorithms»

The valley in one line

From Lerpa to Cima Sappada, in a row

On foot, passing through every hamlet, it is 6.4 km. The difference in height is small, but it is there: each dot is the altitude of the hamlet's centre, and the vertical bar shows the range within which its houses stand.

Lerpa1,220 mGranvilla1,243 mPalù1,214 mPill1,251 mBach1,254 mMühlbach1,243 mCottern1,269 mHoffe1,247 mFontana1,246 mKratten1,253 mSoravia1,248 mEcche1,270 mPuiche1,270 mCretta1,253 mCima Sappada1,297 m
  • The centre, on the valley floor
  • Sappada Vecchia
  • Cretta and Cima Sappada
  • where the hamlet's houses stand

The dots are the altitudes of the hamlet centres, joined by a line: this is not the profile of the road. The vertical scale is heavily exaggerated, otherwise the difference in height would not show.

One name, several boundaries

What “Sappada Vecchia” means

It is the row of historic hamlets above the main road, from Mühlbach to Puiche. The timber houses survived up there because the “new road”, opened in 1922, runs lower down.

There is, however, no single boundary: those who describe it count nine, eight or twelve hamlets, and more than one source also includes Cretta and Cima Sappada. Six appear in every list: Mühlbach, Cottern, Hoffe, Fontana, Kratten and Soravia. Lerpa, Granvilla and Bach appear in none. So we do not pick one definition: we set them side by side. When this site filters by “Sappada Vecchia” we mean the row from Pill to Puiche, and we say so.

In property listings “Sappada Vecchia” describes the area, not the house. The modern stretch of the regional road carries the same names as some of the historic hamlets: always ask whether the house stands in the old core or on the new road.

“Sappada Vecchia” according to whom
HamletThe list “of the nine”I Borghi più belli d'ItaliaThe tourism consortium
Lerpanot includednot includednot included
Granvillanot includednot includednot included
Palùnot includednot includedincluded
Pillincludednot includedincluded
Bachnot includednot includednot included
Mühlbachincludedincludedincluded
Cotternincludedincludedincluded
Hoffeincludedincludedincluded
Fontanaincludedincludedincluded
Krattenincludedincludedincluded
Soraviaincludedincludedincluded
Eccheincludednot includedincluded
Puicheincludednot includedincluded
Crettanot includedincludedincluded
Cima Sappadanot includedincludedincluded
Hamlets included9812

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A few questions about sun, lifts, services within walking distance and the road: the tool suggests three hamlets, with the reasons and with what each one makes you give up.

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