The Granvilla village get its name from its large size; it represents the old religious and civic center of Sappada and even today is one of its largest and most heavily populated communities.

The most prominent ancient residential building of Sappada is here, specifically, the Solero Ortar masonry house (1642). Here, we also find the parish church of St. Margaret. Ancient documents trace the presence of a church on this location (some distance from the residential area to the East) to 1327; the church that we see today, however, is the result of a reconstruction carried out between 1777 and 1779.

At the close of the 19th century, the eastern end of the village saw the erection of the Albergo Alle Alpi, the second tourist facility of Sappa­ da, which followed shortly that of the Stella d'Oro Hotel in the Hoffe village.

The night of October 9, 1928, most of the village was devastated by a fire that burned 35 houses to the ground and left 41 families home­ less. The only two noteworthy traditional buildings that survived are the peculiar Fauner Teilar house and the more classic Kòchlar house, slightly uphill.

Reconstruction took piace quickly, reestablishing the houses of the village and replacing the lost traditional buildings with others that reflected the architectural and aesthetic tastes of the '30s and '40s. The renovation also affected the main street, whose path was straightened and leveled. Part of the old, curvy road (visible in some old pictures), that used to climb up among the houses of the village, stilI survives further uphill.