Wafer maker founded in 1925 by confectioner Alfons Loacker in a small Bolzano patisserie on Piazza Domenicani. His son Armin moved production in 1974 to the Renon/Ritten plateau in the Dolomites, roughly 1,000 meters above sea level.
Best for Wafer classics and alpine treats.
Loacker traces to 1925, when Alfons Loacker, a trained confectioner from Gotzis, Austria, bought a small pastry shop on Piazza Domenicani in Bolzano, South Tyrol. Working with two assistants, he began producing the 'Bolzano wafer' - thin, crisp layers filled with cream - using natural raw ingredients. The business remained a small regional bakery until 1974, when Alfons's son Armin Loacker moved production to the Renon (Ritten) plateau high in the Dolomites, marking the shift from an artisanal shop to an industrial confectionery producer. Loacker remains family-owned and marked its hundredth anniversary in 2025.
Alpine-gear brand founded 1935 in Munich as a leather/saddlery workshop; refocused on mountaineering in the 1950s and moved its HQ to Bolzano in 1990 after Oberalp's acquisition.
Best for Alpine shells, packs, and via ferrata kit.
Salewa was founded in 1935 by Josef Liebhart in Munich, originally as a leather-goods and saddlery workshop - the name abbreviates the German Sattler ('saddler'), Leder ('leather') and Waren ('goods'). The company shifted focus toward mountaineering equipment starting in the early 1950s, developing gear including adjustable twelve-point crampons, a tubular ice-screw design, the Andes backpack and the Helium helmet. In 1990 the Bolzano-based Oberalp Group acquired Salewa and relocated its headquarters from Munich to Bolzano in South Tyrol. Oberalp completed a new Bolzano headquarters building in 2011. Salewa remains part of the family-owned Oberalp Group alongside other outdoor brands.
Ceramics house founded in Bolzano in 1950 by Countess Lene Thun, who modeled the first Angel of Bozen figurine now emblematic of South Tyrol; still headquartered in Bolzano as THUN S.p.A.
Best for Ceramic angels and warm-hearted gifts.
THUN began in 1950 in a small modelling workshop at Castel Sant'Antonio in Bolzano, when Countess Lene Thun, working alongside her husband Count Otmar Thun, created the first Angel of Bozen - a ceramic figure she modeled after her sleeping sons. The angel was embraced locally and became closely associated with the city of Bolzano and the South Tyrol region. In 1978 the Thuns' son Peter, then 23, took over management and expanded the company internationally. THUN's product range grew from figurines into tableware, home decor, jewelry, nursery items, nativity-scene pieces and gift items. The company today operates as THUN S.p.A. Societa Benefit, headquartered in Bolzano.
Area names come from each shop’s published address record; ORBIS does not invent neighbourhoods.
ORBIS city intelligence
Two Bolzano addresses answer different needs. The Loacker café at Piazza Walther 11, in Palais Campofranco, includes a shop for its wafers and chocolate.S1Salewa runs a separate store at Via Waltraud Gebert Deeg 4 for outdoor clothing and equipment.S2
Try an outdoor garment over the layers you expect to wear beneath it, and ask what conditions it is made for. For wafers or chocolate bought for the journey, compare pack sizes and read the storage note on the box.
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