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From the 11th century onwards, part of the region was governed by the prince-bishops of Trento and Brixen-Bressanone, to whom the Holy Roman Emperors had given extensive temporal powers over their bishoprics. The rest was part of the County of Tirol, which, from the 14th century, was a possession of the House of Habsburg. This arrangement ended at the start of the 19th century with the dissolution of the Empire. The Bishoprics were secularized in 1803 and given to the Habsburgs. Two years later, following the Austrian defeat at Austerlitz, the whole region was annexed to the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy; after Napoleon defeat, in 1815, the region returned to Austria. The large Italian minority agitated for unification with Italy, making the issue a key priority for the irredentist movement in Italian politics. Some say that in reality, aside from certain political circles based in Trento, the vast majority of the population never really warmed up to the idea of joining the newly created Italian Kingdom, as their alleagence lays with the Habsburg Empire; also they cite a meeting between Alcide De Gasperi, a Trento representative at the Reichsrat in Vienna, and Italy's Foreign Minister Sonnino during which De Gasperi affirmed that, should a referendum be held in the region, 95 percent of the population would most likely confirm their loyalty to Austria-Hungary. During the First World War, major battles were fought high in the Alps and Dolomites between Austrian and Italian forces, for whom control of the South Tyrol was a key strategic objective. The collapse of the Austrian war effort enabled Italian troops to occupy the region in 1918 and its annexation was confirmed in the post-war treaties, which awarded the Trentino and South Tyrol to Italy under the terms of the Treaty of Saint-Germain. Under the rule of Benito Mussolini, the Fascist dictator of Italy (ruled 1922-1943), the region was subjected to an intensive programme of forcibly imposed Italianization: all references to old Tyrol were banned and the region was referred to as "Venezia Tridentina," in an attempt to justify the Italian claims to the area by historically linking the region to the Republic of Venice (in fact the Republic never ruled Trentino). Hitler and Mussolini agreed in 1938 that the German-speaking population would be transferred to German-ruled territory or dispersed around Italy, but the outbreak of the Second World War prevented them from fully carrying out the relocation. Nevertheless thousands of people were relocated to the Third Reich and only with great difficulties managed to return to their ancestral land after the end of the war. In 1943, when the Italian government signed an armistice with the Allies, the region was occupied by Germany, which reorganised it as the "Alpenvorland" (literally "Alpine Foreland") and put it under the administration of a Nazi Gauleiter. The region was de facto annexed to the German Reich (with the addition of the province of Belluno) until the end of the war. This status ended along with the Nazi regime and Italian rule was restored in 1945. Italy and Austria negotiated an agreement in 1946, put into effect in 1947 when a new Italian constitution was promulgated, that the region would be granted considerable autonomy. German and Italian were both made official languages, and German-language education was permitted once more. However, the implementation of the agreement was not seen as satisfactory by either the German-speaking population or the Austrian government. The issue became the cause of significant friction between the two countries and was taken up by the United Nations in 1960. A fresh round of negotiations took place in 1961 but proved unsuccessful, partly because of a campaign of terrorism by German-speaking separatists. The issue was only resolved in 1971 when a new Italo-Austrian treaty was signed and ratified. It stipulated that disputes in Bozen province would be submitted for settlement to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, that the province would receive greater autonomy from Italy, and that Austria would not interfere in Bozen's internal affairs. The new agreement proved broadly satisfactory to the parties involved and the separatist tensions soon eased. Matters were helped further by Austria's accession to the European Union in 1995, which has helped to improve cross-border cooperation.

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Others regional Hotels

Province of Bolzano:
Hotel Racines | Hotel Sesto 

Province of Trento:
Hotel Cles | Hotel Vezzano | Hotel Dimaro | Hotel Tenno | Hotel Tuenno | Hotel Caldonazzo | Hotel Vallarsa | Hotel Fiave' | Hotel Tres