Where the timber is densest
Fontana
Prunn in the Sappada dialectHamlet of Sappada
Fontana, Prunn in Plodarisch, is among the hamlets of Sappada Vecchia where timber houses are most numerous and most varied: the oldest documented one dates from 1650. It stands at 1,246 m, above the cross-country area, with the dairy in the hamlet and two chairlifts a few minutes' walk away. It is the place for the skier who wants to live in timber. In December the sun arrives only around midday, and the lower band, along the regional road, is the one with the hotels.
The sun here
Where the sun reaches Fontana from, and when
The ridge line you see is the real one, calculated from the centre of the hamlet. Above it are the sun's paths on the days that matter: where the line is solid the sun is in view, where it is dashed the sun has risen but is still behind the mountain.
On 21 December the sun reaches Fontana at about 11:35 and leaves at about 15:10: about 3 h 40 min of direct sun, under a clear sky.
Move your mouse or finger over the panorama, or use the slider beside it: you can read the direction, the height of the ridge, the peak, and the time the sun passes that way.
In words: from Fontana the highest stretch of ridge lies to the north, 27.4° above the horizon; the lowest to the east, 3.1°. To the south the ridge stands at 9.8°, and at midday on 21 December the sun climbs to 20°. At midday on that day the sun is in view. On 21 December it arrives at about 11:35 and leaves at about 15:10; on 21 June it stays in view from roughly 6:20 to 19:30.
Hours of direct sun, month by month
On the 21st of each month, under a clear sky, at the centre of the hamlet. The pale band is the day as it would be without mountains: the difference is what the ridge takes away.
- direct sun in Fontana
- the day without mountains
- average of the hamlets
The same figures as a table
| Day | Direct sun | First light | Last light | Without mountains | Average of the hamlets |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 January | 4 h 30 min | 11:25 | 15:55 | 9 h 08 min | 5 h 15 min |
| 21 February | 8 h 40 min | 8:20 | 17:00 | 10 h 36 min | 8 h 05 min |
| 21 March | 10 h 30 min | 6:45 | 17:15 | 12 h 08 min | 10 h 25 min |
| 21 April | 12 h 25 min | 6:40 | 19:05 | 13 h 49 min | 12 h 25 min |
| 21 May | 13 h | 6:20 | 19:25 | 15 h 10 min | 13 h 10 min |
| 21 June | 13 h 15 min | 6:20 | 19:30 | 15 h 46 min | 13 h 35 min |
| 21 July | 13 h | 6:30 | 19:35 | 15 h 13 min | 13 h 15 min |
| 21 August | 12 h 25 min | 6:45 | 19:10 | 13 h 52 min | 12 h 25 min |
| 21 September | 10 h 30 min | 7:30 | 18:05 | 12 h 12 min | 10 h 30 min |
| 21 October | 8 h 25 min | 8:55 | 17:30 | 10 h 35 min | 8 h |
| 21 November | 4 h 25 min | 11:00 | 15:25 | 9 h 08 min | 5 h 15 min |
| 21 December | 3 h 40 min | 11:35 | 15:10 | 8 h 30 min | 3 h 45 min |
21 December, the shortest day
- First light
- 11:35at about
- Last light
- 15:10at about
- Direct sun
- 3 h 40 minabout
- Without mountains the day would last 8 h 30 min: the ridge takes away 4 h 50 min.
- Across the 71 mapped buildings of the hamlet, direct sun ranges from 3 h 20 min to 3 h 50 min; the mid-point is 3 h 35 min.
- At midday the sun is in view all year round.
- What hides it longest is the ridge to the south-east, where Monte Siera stands: about 2 h 20 min.
The peaks in view from Fontana
According to the calculation: at least twenty metres of summit above the terrain in between. A wood or a nearby house can still hide them.
The list of peaks in view
| Peak | Direction | Distance | Altitude |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monte Tuglia | E · 93° | 5.4 km | 1,945 m |
| Monte Cimon | E · 111° | 5.5 km | 2,415 m |
| Monte Siera | SE · 153° | 2.4 km | 2,443 m |
| Creton di Clap Grande | SW · 204° | 4.9 km | 2,487 m |
| Terza Piccola | W · 260° | 5.6 km | 2,336 m |
| Monte del Ferro | NW · 307° | 2.7 km | 2,347 m |
Names and altitudes are those of OpenStreetMap. Peaks beyond the basin are left out: they are long lines of sight that need checking on the spot before we state them.
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»
What Fontana is like
What kind of place it is
Prunn is the fountain, and the fountain is there: a double basin, at the geometric centre of the settlement. Around it is one of the densest concentrations of timber architecture in the village, with houses dated 1650, 1707 and 1737. Fontana keeps one of the last kèisn, the large drying racks for cereals that every hamlet once had: two remain, this one and the one rebuilt in Kratten. It has the dairy, one of Sappada's historic cooperative dairies, and it has no chapel of its own: with Pill it is one of the two exceptions.
As in Hoffe, the hamlet is made of two parts. Higher up, on the old road, the timber cluster; lower down, along the line of the regional road, large hotels and twentieth-century masonry houses. Below that again opens the level ground where cross-country skiing takes place in winter.
The sun: what the calculation says
On 21 December, according to our calculation, the hamlet's map point receives about 3 h 40 min of direct sun: Monte Siera, which from here lies between south-east and south, keeps it in shade until about 11:35; then the sun stays until 15:10. It is a matter of a few weeks: in February Fontana is among the hamlets with the most hours of sun, on 21 March the figure is about 10 h 30 min, on 21 June about 13 h 15 min.
In winter the windows and balconies that pay here are those facing south-west: they catch the sun from when it clears Siera until it drops behind the Terze. It is a calculation on the terrain model, under a clear sky, without trees or buildings: in the cluster the houses are close to one another, and the one opposite counts too.
The houses, and what comes up for sale
In the cluster, portions of historic Blockbau houses: horizontal logs notched at the corners, a stone plinth, a roof originally of larch shingles. They are houses with a protection grade: structures, floors and stairs are as a rule not touched, no volume is added, and a garage above ground on the open spaces is not allowed. Solid timber insulates well, but not like a new wall: windows, roof and airtightness matter, and insulation can only be added from the inside.
In the band below, apartments in masonry buildings, next to the hotels.
For the Italian Revenue Agency Fontana is in the “peripheral” zone, the historic part of the village: standard homes between €1,900/m2 and €2,700/m2 (OMI, normal condition, gross floor area). It is a range estimated on completed sales: for a restored seventeenth-century house, or one to restore, it says little.
On foot from here
The hamlet has the dairy with its shop and a food shop; the bank and a wine shop are next door, towards Hoffe. The cross-country flat is just below. The chairlift to Sappada 2000, in Kratten, and the Pian dei Nidi chairlift, below Soravia, are a few minutes' walk away: in the last published timetables the ski bus stopped right here. The town hall, post office and pharmacy are in Bach: on foot it is a long walk, and many people use the car for those. The stop for scheduled buses is on the regional road.
1,246 mSource 3OpenStreetMap, the hamlet's node, with the altitude from the EU-DEM 25 m model (OpenTopoData); data © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL · 6 October 2026
Altitude of the hamlet
The hamlet's point on OpenStreetMap; the houses stand between 1,226 m and 1,256 m.
Direct sun on 21 December
From late morning. Calculated on the terrain model, under a clear sky, for the hamlet's map point: trees and buildings are not taken into account.
On foot from here
- the dairy and the food shop, in the hamlet
- the cross-country area, below the hamlet
- the chairlift to Sappada 2000, in Kratten
- the Pian dei Nidi chairlift, below Soravia
- the bank, towards Hoffe
The drawback
In December the sun arrives around midday. And almost every building in the cluster carries a protection constraint: anyone buying in order to transform should first find out what is permitted.
Who it suits
Who Fontana suits, and who it does not
It suits you if
- The downhill and cross-country skier who wants to live in a timber house.
- Anyone looking for a historic hamlet with dairy and food shop within walking distance.
- Anyone who uses the house from February onwards and in summer.
Look elsewhere if
- Anyone who wants morning sun at Christmas.
- Anyone who wants to extend the house or change its appearance.
- Anyone looking for a cluster away from hotels and passing traffic: the lower band is not that.
The drawbacks, stated
- In December the sun arrives around midday.
- The lower band is given over to hotels and lies on the regional road.
- Protection constraints on almost all the buildings in the cluster.
- Town hall, post office and pharmacy are in Bach, not a few steps away.
Prices
How the Italian Revenue Agency values this area
Fontana falls within the zone that the property market observatory (OMI) calls “peripheral”. For homes in the “abitazioni civili” category, in normal condition, the official value (second half of 2025) runs from €1,900/m2Source 1Agenzia delle Entrate – OMI, database of official property values: standard homes, normal state of repair, euros per square metre of gross floor area. A broad range: it does not replace the valuation of an individual property · 6 October 2026 to €2,700/m2Source 2Agenzia delle Entrate – OMI, database of official property values: standard homes, normal state of repair, euros per square metre of gross floor area. A broad range: it does not replace the valuation of an individual property · 6 October 2026 of gross floor area. It is a range that applies to the whole zone: it is not the price of a house, and it is not an asking price from the listings.
Questions about Fontana
What is a kèisn?
A large timber drying rack for cereals. Once there was one in every hamlet; today two remain, one in Fontana and one rebuilt in Kratten.
Can a seventeenth-century house be lived in all year round?
Yes, but you need to understand it first. Ceiling heights and stairs are those of the period, bathrooms are usually few, and works are limited by the protection grade. Read the energy performance certificate, ask for the bills and have the condition of the timber, the stone plinth and the systems checked.
Can you walk to the slopes from the hamlet?
Yes: the Sappada 2000 and Pian dei Nidi chairlifts and the cross-country area are a few minutes away. For the Campetti nursery slopes and for Monte Siera you use the ski bus. On the future of the Sappada 2000 sector, where a gondola has been funded, you will find the facts on the Kratten page.
Does “Borgata Fontana” in a listing mean the historic cluster?
No. The stretch of the regional road, lower down, also bears the name of the hamlet. Ask whether the house is on the old road or on the regional road.
Sources
Facts checked against the sources on 6 October 2026.
- I Borghi più belli d'Italia in Friuli Venezia Giulia, “Le Borgate di Sappada” (entry for Fontana)
- Comune di Sappada – Plodn, “Alla scoperta delle borgate di Sappada / Plodn”
- Comune di Sappada/Plodn, Piano Regolatore Generale Comunale, variante n. 3: norme tecniche di attuazione
- Agenzia delle Entrate – OMI, property values database
- PromoTurismoFVG, “Pista dei Campioni”
- OpenStreetMap, nodes for hamlets, roads, lifts and services (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL)
- OpenStreetMap, the hamlet's node, with the altitude from the EU-DEM 25 m model (OpenTopoData); data © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL · 6 October 2026
- Our calculation, not a measurement, on the 10-metre terrain model (TINITALY, INGV) in the basin and the 30-metre model (Copernicus) beyond, under a clear sky, trees and buildings not considered; times and durations rounded to five minutes · 7 October 2026
- Agenzia delle Entrate – OMI, database of official property values: standard homes, normal state of repair, euros per square metre of gross floor area. A broad range: it does not replace the valuation of an individual property · 6 October 2026
- Our calculation: altitude of the hamlet's OpenStreetMap buildings on the EU-DEM 25 m model (median, 10th and 90th percentile) · 6 October 2026