The Pusteria Valley has always been an important cross-road. The old Roman road has been serving travellers for 2000 years and precisely here in San Candido links up with the Medieval trade route known as "Strada d'Alemagna" that carried timber and spices to and from Venice and Teutonic knights in armour towards the Holy Land through Val Pusteria, Val di Landro and the Piave River Valley.

Ever since 769 A.D., the year in which San Candido was first mentioned in an early Medieval land donation deed, an important religious center has been developing. In that year, a Bavarian Duke gave the Benedictine Abate Atto a strip of land on the condition that the Holy Father built a convent to for the conversion of the many Slavs dwelling in the Alps at the time. When Atto was appointed Bishop of Frisingen (in modern Bavaria) in 783, San Candido was incorporated into the same bishopric and remained a part for the next thousand years until 803. In 1140, the Benedictine Convent was transformed into a collegiate church, and in 1303 was granted the royal boon of a status as a merchant city state.

History is everywhere in San Candido: from the old alleys and buildings to the ancient planking of the “Stuben” and our pride and joy, the Romanic Collegiate Church. Excursions in the area and visits to museums tell a long tale of a district that truly has a great deal to say.