Les Viles

Campill is an original and natural mountain village at an altitude of about 1,400 meters. Here you will find peace and relaxation away from mass tourism, and the Puez-Geisler Nature Park offers numerous wonderful hiking opportunities. On a hike into the Mühlental valley, you will encounter the typical and unique hamlets of the Gadertal valley, the Viles.

Alta Badia is one of the Ladin-speaking areas of South Tyrol. Here, the ancient Rhaetian culture has been able to survive, but has also mixed with Roman and later with Bavarian culture. The precursor of the Vila was the Rhaetian Tambra, which is often considered the oldest form of the alpine hut. This Rhaetian building style was closed like the Bavarian one, and from the mixture with the open and Mediterranean Roman lifestyle, the Vila was created.

The Vila consists of two separate buildings: one, the "ciasa", is the residential house with a workshop, dining and storage room, and cellar on the ground floor, and the actual living area on the first floor. The adjacent building, the "majun", houses the stable and above it the hayloft, the "tablé", with a balcony-like drying room. "ciasa" and "majun" are usually connected by a bridge. The decorative carvings, whose patterns and symbols often originate from antiquity, are striking.

The Viles probably originally consisted of only a single family group and only became a small settlement over time through the addition of further families. It is essential, especially in the alpine region, that the Viles represent not just a group of houses but a social community. The Viles are always arranged in a circle or semicircle, with commonly used facilities such as wells, drinking troughs, a bakery, a communal tool shed, or a carpentry or blacksmith shop located in the center. Mutual assistance, solidarity, and living together in harmony with nature are the foundations of these societies in the Viles. Various tasks, such as building new structures, are also carried out by the community.

The continued existence of the Viles is essential to the South Tyrolean tradition of closed farms, meaning that the eldest son inherits the farm as a whole. This prevents a division of the Viles. Only in this way can this ancient form of settlement with its typical structure be preserved for the future.