HEIGHT: | 755 m | ||
INHABITANTS: | 607 | ||
Terzolas is situated in the lower Val di Sole, on an extensive, slightly sloped terrace at the foot of the Lac peak (2439 metres), a position that was much appreciated by the large medieval landowners who lived in the 16th-century palazzo Torraccia. The built-up area lies in a sun-filled site, surrounded by apple orchards, such as the nearby village of Caldes. Today, Caldes is an important agricultural centre producing apples guaranteed under the Melinda Consortium brand.
Terzolas also has a good cheese-making tradition and is the site of Caseificio Sociale Cercen, a dairy that has been collecting and processing the milk of the lower Val di Sole and Val di Rabbi since 1971.
As you stroll through the streets of the village centre, you will see a palatial building on the north side of the square known as Palazzo della “Torraccia” (Casa Malanotti). A noble, late-renaissance residence, it is a well-executed compromise between a fortified house (battlements on the external walls, embrasures, machicolation on the façade) and a palazzo (elegant double-lancet windows) with some elements that are still Gothic (erkers at the corners) while others are fully from the renaissance period (rusticated portal). The Palazzo was built between 1573 and 1579 by Francesco Enigler. It was partly destroyed by fire in 1645 was then extended and embellished between 1652 and 1665 by canon Bernardino Malanotti, who had the hall in the second level frescoed with a frieze decorated with garlands, putti and satyrs and with family coats of arms and trompe-l’oeil architecture painted around the doors. Restored in the 1980s, today it houses the Municipality and Historic Library of the Val di Sole Studies Centre.