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Until the beginning of the 19th century, lace-making was very important for the economy of the valley. The whole female population, from the 7-year-old girls to the 80-year-old women, practiced this profession. Their great skill in lace-making explains why the traditional costumes of Val Gardena are so richly decorated and elaborated down to the smallest detail.
For two centuries, the production of laces represented a considerable additional income for the families. But already around 1830, only the older women continued practicing this art. The reasons for the decrease of this activity were the growing competition of more economic laces from other areas, the segregation from Tyrol in 1810 and the consequent difficulty in finding new markets, and above all the exponential growth of the export of handmade wood carvings.
