Pons Drusi Museum

Some time ago, a retirement home was supposed to be built at the Grieserhof in the Via Cologna road in Bolzano (Bozen). But construction work was abruptly stopped when something spectacular came to light: a richly frescoed building with a Roman portico and a massive substructure that suggests a temple or monument, once covered with marble slabs and decorated with columns. The finds have been opened to the public in the form of the Pons Drusi Museum and can be visited on a guided tour. But why "Pons Drusi"?

Still today the Druso Bridge (Ponte Druso, in Italian) crosses the Talvera river near the centre of Bolzano. The present bridge dates back to 1930 and was supposed to connect the town centre and the railway station with the new districts, but Pons Drusi, or "Bridge of the Drusus", is also one of the traditional names of Bolzano. Drusus, stepson of Emperor Augustus, is said to have conquered this area during a campaign and turned it into a settlement at the junction between the Via Claudia Augusta through the Valle dell'Adige valley and a Roman route through the Valle Isarco valley.