30/06/2025
🌉 Crossing the Marterloch: South Tyrol’s Longest Suspension Bridge
Nestled between Afing and Sarntal, the brand‑new Marterloch suspension bridge is a breathtaking marvel of engineering and heritage. With a staggering 272 m span and towering 130 m above the gorge, it’s the longest and highest footbridge in South Tyrol.
Built not just for thrill-seekers but as a life-saving water conduit, beneath the deck runs a 40 cm iron pipe supplying irrigation water from the Sarntal to Jenesien—enough to hydrate roughly 200 hectares of farmland.
The bridge connects via a scenic “Adventure Trail” marked by 21 info stations winding through forests and meadows along ancient mule paths once used by traders and farmers traversing between Bolzano and Sarntal
✨ Myths & Legends of the Marterloch Gorge
South Tyrol is woven with folklore—and deep ravines like the Marterloch naturally evoke old legends:
1. The Devil’s Bridge motif
In Alpine lore, treacherous gorge crossings often inspire stories of pacts with the devil: build the bridge and the first to cross it is claimed by Satan. Yet, through cunning, a goat is usually sent ahead to outwit him. Though no specific local variant of this tale has been documented for Marterloch, the folklore is so strong in the region that you can almost feel the echo of that classic “Devil’s bargain” as you step onto the span.
2. Border whispers and wartime echoes
In the early 1800s, the Marterloch stream marked the border between the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy and Bavaria—fleetingly making this remote wilderness a frontier of political reality . It’s easy to sense the ghosts of past tensions as you stand amidst the roaring waters below.
3. Echoes of the past on the mule trail
Walk the old Saumpfad through the Marterloch, and you may recall grim stories from 1891: as travelers wrote, “a pack-horse loaded with all sorts of wares” plunged into the gorge during winter—tragic reminders of the perilous journeys made long before the bridge existed.official .sangenesio
