San Candido Christmas Market

At nearly 1,200 metres above sea level, beneath the Romanesque bell towers of the collegiate church and a few kilometres from the Austrian border, San Candido Christmas market (Innichen) opens from 27 November 2026 to 6 January 2027, in the pedestrian centre of the village. Christened the “Christmas market of the Dolomites” by the Tre Cime tourist office, it is a small market of sixteen stalls, open at weekends during Advent and then every day from 18 December, with an unexpected extra: an underground Christmas market in the Dolomythos museum, free and heated, which starts as early as 13 November. People come for the snow, the nearby Tre Cime di Lavaredo and the atmosphere of a mountain village at the far eastern end of the Val Pusteria.

Sixteen chalets in the centre of San Candido

The market occupies the pedestrian zone of the centre, between the collegiate church and the parish church, in a village of around 3,300 inhabitants that lives on skiing and hiking. The Tre Cime tourist office publishes a numbered plan of sixteen stalls. You find carved wooden figurines, boiled wool objects, jewellery, mountain cheeses, bread, alpine herbal teas, and the hot dishes of South Tyrol: goulash, polenta, strudel, grilled sausages. The setting is that of a village under snow most winters, with no large-scale light show. The sellers are producers and artisans from the valley, and the numbered plan lets you find the cheesemaker's or the woodcarver's stall from one visit to the next, which matters when you come back several weekends in a row.

The calendar is unusual and worth reading before you set off. The market only opens at weekends during Advent: 27 to 29 November, 4 to 8 December (Immaculate Conception long weekend), 11 to 13 December, then every day from 18 December 2026 to 6 January 2027. The chalets open 10.30am-7pm, closing at 2pm on 24 December with a day off on the 25th.

• Advent weekends: 27-29 November, 4-8 December, 11-13 December 2026.
• Every day from 18 December 2026 to 6 January 2027, 10.30am-7pm.
• On 24 December, closes at 2pm; closed on 25 December.
• Dolomythos underground market from 13 November 2026 to 6 January 2027, 8am-7pm, free entry.

The underground Christmas market at Dolomythos

Dolomythos is San Candido's museum of the Dolomites, on Via P.-P.-Rainer, with its Triassic dinosaur fossils and its minerals. During the winter, its basements become a covered Christmas market, “the market where nobody freezes” in the organiser's words: gifts, local crafts, gourmet products, in heated vaulted galleries. It opens from 13 November 2026 to 6 January 2027, every day 8am-7pm, with no ticket, and the museum offers free entry to its collections during the period. It is the answer on stormy days, and a good introduction for children before the chalets outside.

Another winter event flagged by the tourist office: an exhibition of nativity scenes at the Franciscan convent, in the tradition of carved wooden Tyrolean presepi. It is open on certain days, 2pm-6pm.

Goulash, polenta and Glühwein at 1,200 metres

In San Candido you are in German-speaking country, and mulled wine is ordered as Glühwein. The chalet menu comes down to a few hearty dishes: goulash, polenta, sausages, apple strudel, and the cheeses of the neighbouring alpine pastures sold by the piece. The Val Pusteria is South Tyrol's dairy valley, which shows on the stalls. To understand what sets a Tyrolean Glühwein apart from an Alsatian vin chaud, we have written an article on mulled wine and its variations.

Between €10 and €20 per person is enough for a meal at a chalet and a souvenir. The underground market is free, as is entry to the museum for its duration.

Getting to San Candido from France

San Candido is the Italian terminus of the Val Pusteria line, which comes from Fortezza on the Brenner line and continues to Lienz and Austria; the railway dates from 1871 and the station is at the western edge of the village, a quarter of an hour’s walk from the centre. From Paris, the shortest route goes through Milan: as of 22 September 2026, three TGV and two Frecciarossa trains link Paris to Milan every day in a little over 7 hours (5h40 to Turin) through the Maurienne, on a line reopened in spring 2025 after the rockfall of August 2023; works in the Mont-Cenis tunnel suspend these direct trains from 11 September to 9 October 2026, outside the market season. From Milan, you get to Verona, then Fortezza via Bolzano and Bressanone, and the Val Pusteria regional train to the end of the line. It is long: a night in Bolzano or Bressanone on the way out is a must, so make San Candido the last stop on a tour of the South Tyrol markets. Innsbruck is the nearest airport, then Venice, Verona and Munich.

From the north, the Munich-Innsbruck-Verona Railjet trains stop at Fortezza every two hours. From Austria, the Drava line arrives from Lienz, and the border is a few kilometres from the village. By car, the drive from Paris takes a long day via the Fréjus or Mont Blanc tunnel, the A4 to Verona, the A22 to Bressanone-Val Pusteria and then the whole valley to its eastern end; those coming from Switzerland or Germany go via Innsbruck and the Brenner. Car parks are a few minutes' walk from the market, according to the tourist office.

San Candido, Dobbiaco and the Tre Cime

The collegiate church of San Candido is the village landmark: built from 1043 on the site of a Benedictine abbey founded in 769 by Duke Tassilo III of Bavaria, it is listed by Wikipedia as the most important Romanesque building in South Tyrol. Its austere interior and its crypt can be seen in a quarter of an hour between two chalets. The village is also a ski and cross-country skiing resort, and the municipality takes in part of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo nature park, whose peaks close the valley to the south.

Dobbiaco (Toblach), the village next door, holds its own market, “Christmas beneath the Tre Cime”, around the bandstand in the centre, from 27 November 2026 to 6 January 2027: Advent weekends 11am-9.30pm (from 4pm on Fridays), then every day from 21 December. To the west, the Val Pusteria line leads to Brunico Christmas market, then, on the Brenner line, to Bressanone Christmas market and Bolzano Christmas market, the oldest of the Italian markets. From San Candido, Innsbruck and its Christmas market can also be reached through Austria.