Telfes is a very small village in the Stubaital Valley......not to be confused with Telfs, the very large market town 17 miles west of Innsbruck.
We were intending to stay there again. On our previous 3 visits it was a unique, peaceful and somewhat quaint place that seemed almost to be in a time warp. This year we were shocked to find that its tiny centre had been ripped apart. Gone is its only traditional old gasthof that we loved, and some other old buildings and barns. Road dug up, clouds of dust, huge cranes.....a major realignment of the sloping junction of two lanes was underway, alongside the construction of huge new buildings at the same spot. It was pandemonium, plenty of vehicles and pedestrians negotiating a narrow, rubbled, chaotic bottleneck. HOWEVER.......we got through it all and found the magnificent church still down the lane in its unspoilt surroundings on the edge of the village. Then we left Telfes to it, and went to stay elsewhere. Hopefully, perhaps next time we decide to visit, some peace and beauty may have been restored to the village centre.
A thousand years ago Telfes, lying on a sunny, fertile shelf just above on the side of the valley, was the original & main parish of the Stubaital, and the seat of its court. Now
a popular small resort in summer and wintertime, where the Stubaital train stops during its hour's journey. This little railway has been running for more than 100 years between Innsbruck and Fulpmes, the next village up the Stubaital Valley.