The Rotstein Knott vantage point was where the South Tyrolean artist Franz Messner first installed his now-famous Knottnkino open-air cinema, with handmade folding theater chairs. Positioned somewhere between heaven and earth, visitors can marvel at the endless spectacle of nature both below and above.

Cut out of porphyry stone in the shape of an amphitheatre and set on the east face of the rock, the new Rotstein rest area designed by architects Verena and David Messner also offers a spectacular mountain view. The barely perceptible “wind rose”, a network of thin lines on the rock conceived by the designer Antoinette Bader, contemplates the interplay between art and nature.

The Rotstein Knott is one of the three “tuff knolls” (Rotstein, Beimstein and Unterstein Knott), they are of volcanic origin and are unparalleled in South Tyrol.