Everything about Tyrol totally explained
Tyrol, or
Tirol, is a historical region in Western
Central Europe, which includes the
Austrian state of
Tyrol (consisting of
North Tyrol and
East Tyrol) and the
Italian region known as
Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol.
Prehistory
Historically the region was home to a series of autochthonous cultures occupying roughly the area of the later county of Tyrol. The most prominent are the late
Bronze Age Laugen-Melaun/Luco-Meluno and
Iron Age Fritzens-Sanzeno cultures.
The Laugen-Melaun/Luco-Meluno culture, named after two important archaeological sites near the modern-day town of
Brixen (Bressanone) in
Bolzano-Bozen, appears in the
14th century BC in the area of today's Bolzano-Bozen and
Trento, while the northern part of
Tyrol comes under the influence of the
Urnfield Culture. It is characterized by a particular type of richly decorated pottery, while the metal-working is strongly influenced by adjacent cultures. The people of the Laugen-Melaun/Luco-Meluno culture cremated the dead and placed their ashes in
urns, and worshipped their gods in sanctuaries sometimes placed in remote areas, on mountain-tops or close to water.
Around
500 BC the Fritzens-Sanzeno-culture, also known as culture of the
Rhaetics, after the goddess
Rhaetia who according to
roman authors was the main deity of the people inhabiting the region, succeeds both the Laugen-Melaun/Luco-Meluno culture of the southern and the Urnfield culture of the northern part of Tyrol . As in the preceding culture, the richly ornamented pottery is very characteristic, while many aspects such as the metal-working, burial customs and religion are strongly influenced by its neighbours, mainly the
Etruscans and
Celts. Nonetheless, the Fritzens-Sanzeno-people possessed important cultural traits which clearly distinguish them from adjacent groups, such as the typical mountain-sanctuaries already in use during the time of the Laugen-Melaun/Luco-Meluno-Culture, certain types of
fibulae, bronze armor, and an own alphabet derived from the Etruscan.
Antiquity
In
15 BCE the region was conquered by the romans and its northern and eastern part where incorporated into the
Roman Empire as the province of
Raetia and
Noricum respectively, while the part south of and including the area around the modern day cities of
Merano and
BolzanoBolzano became part of
Italia's Regio X. As in the rest of Europe, the Roman era left deep marks in the culture and in the language (see:
Rhaeto-Romance languages).
According to a more recent and controversial theory, the Rhaeto-Romance languages are autochthonous and date back to before the roman conquest (see:
Paleolithic Continuity Theory).
From the
6th to the
9th century, the region was settled by the
Bavarii and the
Langobards. As part of the
Frankish Empire and later the
Holy Roman Empire the region had a strategic importance as a bridgehead to Italy as the southern part of the duchy of
Bavaria.
Tyrol, incorporated into the southern part of the
Duchy of Bavaria during the
Early Middle Ages, consisted largely of ecclesiastical holdings of the Bishops of
Brixen and
Trento. Over the centuries, the
Counts residing in
Castle Tyrol, near
Merano, extended their territory over much of the region and came to surpass the power of the bishops, who were nominally their
feudal lords. Later counts came to hold much of their territory directly from the
Holy Roman Emperor. The
Meinhardinger family, originating in
Gorizia, held not only Tyrol and Gorizia, but for a time also the
Duchy of Carinthia.
1363/
1369 the
Wittelsbach released the country for
Habsburg when
Margarete Maultasch, lacking any descendants to succeed her, bequeathed Tyrol to Duke
Rudolph IV of House of
Habsburg. From that time onwards, Tyrol was ruled by various lines of the Habsburg family, who held the title of the
Count of Tyrol (see
List of rulers of Austria).
The red eagle in Tyrol's coat of arms is derived from the red
Brandenburg eagle at the time when
Louis V, Duke of Bavaria and
Margarete Maultasch governed Brandenburg as well.
Following defeat by
Napoleon in 1805,
Austria was forced to cede Tyrol to the
Kingdom of Bavaria in the
Peace of Pressburg. Tyrol as a part of Bavaria became a member of the
Confederation of the Rhine in 1806. The Tyroleans, known to be an obstinate and proud people, rose up against the Bavarian authority and succeeded twice in defeating Bavarian and French troops trying to retake the country. Austria lost the war of the
Fifth Coalition against France, and got even harsher terms in the
Treaty of Schönbrunn in 1809. Often glorified as Tyrol's national hero,
Andreas Hofer, the leader of the uprising, was executed in
1810 in
Mantua, having lost a third and final battle against the French and Bavarian forces. Tyrol remained divided under Bavarian and
Italian authority for another four years before being reunified and returned to
Austria following the decisions at the
Congress of Vienna in
1814. Integrated into the
Austrian Empire, from 1867 onwards it was a
Kronland [CrownLand] of
Cisleithania, the western half of
Austria-Hungary.
The front line during WWI followed mostly the historical border of Tyrol, which ran right through the highest mountains of the
Alps. The ensuing front became known as the "War in ice and snow", as troops occupied the highest mountains and glaciers all year long. Twelve metres (40 feet) of snow were a usual occurrence during the winter of
1915–
16 and tens of thousands of soldiers disappeared in
avalanches. The remains of these soldiers are still being uncovered today. The Italian
Alpini, as well as their Austrian counterparts (
Kaiserjäger,
Standschützen and
Landesschützen) and the German
Alpenkorps occupied every hill and mountain top and began to carve extensive fortifications and military quarters, even drilling tunnels inside the mountains and deep into glaciers, like at
Marmolada. Guns were dragged by hundreds of troops on mountains up to 3,890 m (12,760 ft). Streets, cable cars, mountain railways and walkways through the steepest of walls were built.
But whoever had occupied the higher ground first was almost impossible to dislodge, so both sides turned to drilling tunnels under mountain peaks, filling them up with explosives and then detonating the whole mountain to pieces, including its defenders:
Col di Lana, Monte
Pasubio,
Lagazuoi, etc.
Climbing and skiing became essential skills for the troops of both sides and soon Ski Battalions and Special Climbing units were formed.
In the final days of
World War I, the troops of the already disintegrating Austrian-Hungarian Empire were defeated on
29 October 1918 in the
Battle of Vittorio Veneto in Italy. The subsequent
armistice of Villa Giusti was signed on
November 3 but was set into force only a day later on
November 4, with the Austrian command having ordered its troops to cease hostilities one day too early. This allowed the Italian troops, which had already advanced into
Veneto,
Friuli and
Cadore, to overrun the now undefended Austrian positions, advance deep into Tyrol and occupy its capital
Innsbruck. In the process some 356,000 soldiers of the Austrian army were taken prisoner.
The
Treaty of Saint-Germain then ruled that, according to the
London Pact, the southern part of Tyrol had to be ceded to
Italy. The region included not only the largely
Italian speaking area today known as
Trentino (then often called
Welschtirol in
German), but also the territory now known as
Südtirol/Alto Adige which, according to the census of 1910, was inhabited by 92.2%
German speakers, and a small part of today's province of
Belluno.
The Italian annexation thus went against the principle of national self-determination propagated by US-president
Woodrow Wilson in his
Fourteen Points, specifically against point nine where Wilson explicitly stated that
"readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be effected along clearly recognizable lines of nationality."
The northern part, consisting of the geographically separate regions of Northern Tyrol and Eastern Tyrol, is today one of nine
federal states of the
Federal Republic of Austria called
Tyrol.
Other facts
Tyrol is also known for some of the finest snow skiing in Europe. Some famous resorts in the Tyrolean Alps include
Kitzbühel, Wilder Kaiser,
Ischgl, and
St. Anton, home of the world's first ski school founded by Hannes Schneider.
The Tyrol Gröstl is a traditional food which contains potatoes and pieces of cut pork browned lightly together with chopped onion and butter in a frying pan. It is spiced with abundant marjoram, plus salt, pepper, caraway and parsley. Gröstl is often served with fried egg and herbs, sheet or rohnensalat (beetroot).
"
The Green Hills Of Tyrol" is a popular bagpiping tune, as a 3/4 retreat march. It is one of the best known, and oldest tunes played by pipe bands. It was originally transposed by Pipe Major MacLean in Crimea, during the Crimean War.
References
Further Information
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