Happacherhof

About Happacherhof

The buildings of the "Happacherhof" estate can be dated back to 1604. Originally, the estate consisted of two farmsteads belonging to two different families. One of them was the Happacher family; for several generations, the mayors of the municipality of Auer/Ora came from this family. In 1911, the Theodor Steinkeller acquired the estate. His family was employed in the fruit trade and supplied the Habsburger monarchy from Bolzano/Bozen. Due to the Great Depression of the 1920s and 30s, the family was unable to keep the estate. In 1938, the farmstead was put up for auction and bought by the "Ente di Rinascita," an organization that focused on buying farms in South Tyrol and making them available to interested Italian investors. It sold the estate to the Rovereto-based Botta family. A family supervisor ran the farm, but the family did not invest in its maintenance. In February 1984, the farm was purchased by the provincial administration for use as a "practice farm for the secondary school for agriculture" and named "Happacherhof" after the original owner family. Today, it is an important place for students of agriculture to practice their trade. The extensive restoration