Tyrol

Tyrol is a historical region in the Alps of Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary, from its formation in the 12th century until 1919.
In 1919, following World War I and the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, it was divided into two modern administrative parts through the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye:

State of Tyrol: Formed through the merger of North and East Tyrol, as part of Austria.
Region of Trentino-Alto Adige: At that time still with Souramont and the municipalities Valvestino, Magasa, and Pedemonte. This was seized in 1918 by the Kingdom of Italy, and since 1946 has been part of the Italian Republic.

With the founding of the European region Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino, the area has had its own legal entity since 2011. It is known as a European Grouping for Territorial Cooperation.

Etymology

According to, the name Tyrol derives from a root word meaning terrain ; first from the village of Tirol, and its castle; from which the County of Tyrol developed. Some sources suggest it derives from the Slavic language "ta rola" meaning "this land, farming terrain/farming ground." According to Karl Finsterwalder, the name Tyrol derives from, a late-Roman fort and travellers' hostel in Zirl, Tyrol. There seems to be no scholarly consensus.

Geography

Location

Tyrol has an area of 26,673 km². The region consists of the State of Tyrol, the Province of South Tyrol and the Province of Trento. In addition to the region belong the municipalities Cortina d'Ampezzo, Livinallongo del Col di Lana, Colle Santa Lucia and Pedemonte from the Region of Veneto and Valvestino and Magasa from the Region of Lombardy. The largest cities in Tyrol are Innsbruck, Trento and Bolzano.
The whole region of Tyrol is located in the Alps. Tyrol is bordered to the north by the state of Bavaria and to the east by the states of Carinthia and Salzburg. West of Tyrol lies the state of Vorarlberg and the canton of Grisons. On the southern side of Tyrol, the land is bordered by the regions of Veneto and Lombardy.
Important rivers in Tyrol are the Adige, Inn and Drau. The region is characterized by many valleys. Some of these valleys are still difficult to reach today. The most important valleys are the Inn Valley and Adige Valley. A large part of the population lives in these two valleys and also the five largest cities of Tyrol lie in these valleys.
For centuries, the region has been known for transit trade. The most important trade route across the Alps, namely the Brenner Route, traverses the whole of Tyrol and is regarded as a connecting link between the Italian and German-speaking areas.

Mountains

As the Tyrolean region is located in the Alps, the landscape is heavily influenced by the mountains. The highest mountains in Tyrol include:

the Ortler – 3,905 m a.s.l.
the Königspitze – 3,851 m a.s.l.
the Großglockner – 3,798 m AA
the Monte Cevedale – 3,769 m a.s.l.
the Wildspitze – 3,768 m AA

Across Tyrol, on the border between North and South Tyrol, runs the main chain of the Alps. The main chain of the Alps geographically divides the Alps into a southern and northern half.

Biggest municipalities

Municipalities of Tyrol with over 10,000 inhabitants:

Rank	Municipality	Inhabitants
1	Innsbruck	132,236
2	Trento	117,417
3	Bolzano/Bozen	106,951
4	Merano/Meran	40,047
5	Rovereto	39,482
6	Brixen/Bressanone	21,688
7	Pergine Valsugana	21,363
8	Kufstein	18,973
9	Laives	17,780
10	Arco	17,588
11	Riva del Garda	17,190
12	Bruneck/Brunico	16,356
13	Telfs	15,582
14	Eppan/Appiano	14,900
15	Hall in Tirol	13,801
16	Schwaz	13,606
17	Wörgl	13,537
18	Lana	12,046
19	Lienz	11,945
20	Imst	10,371

Austria: 1 January 2017

Italy: 31 December 2016

Society

Language distribution

Tyrol can be subdivided into 5 different language groups. In addition to the majority languages such as German and Italian, languages such as Ladin, Cimbrian and Mócheno are also spoken. The last three languages are recognized as minority languages. These language groups are mostly located in the Trentino-Alto Adige region and are thus promoted and protected by the region.
The Ladin language is also spoken outside the region in Souramont. Ladin is considered a Rhaeto-Romance language.
The Cimbrian language is also used in various linguistic islands outside the region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. The Cimbrian and the Mòcheno languages are considered as upper-Bavarian dialects.
In Trentino two Romance languages are spoken: Lombard in western valleys, and Venetian in eastern ones; in central Trentino a transitional dialect between the Lombard language and the Venetian language is spoken.

Dialects

In the Austrian state of Tyrol, the German language is used by a large majority. As in many other regions in German-speaking countries, Tyrol also has its own German-language dialect. The Tyrolean dialect comes from the Bavarian language.
In South Tyrol, the Tyrolean dialect was mixed with a few individual Italian words. Due to the difficult accessibility of the valleys in earlier years, many other valleys developed a slightly differentiated dialect compared to the Tyrolean.
The Ladin language also has no uniform language, so every valley also has a slight difference in Ladinia.

Heraldry

Although the details of the arms of Tyrol have changed over the centuries, one feature has remained more-or-less constant: argent, an eagle displayed gules, armed or. Since 1983, the Province of South Tyrol has its own coat of arms. It is very similar to the coat of arms of the State of Tyrol. The Province wanted to emphasize the historical commonality of the countries. The Province of Trento received its coat of arms in 1340 and refers to the prince-bishopric of Trento. The former County of Tyrol had a uniform coat of arms, which was slightly changed over the centuries.

History

Prehistory

The earliest archaeological records of human settlement in Tyrol have been found in the Tischofer Cave. They date from the Palaeolithic, about 28,000–27,000 BP. The same cave has also yielded evidence of human occupation during the Bronze Age.
In 1991, the mummified remains of a man who had died around 3300–3100 BC were discovered in a glacier in the Ötztal Alps, in Tyrol. Researchers have called him Ötzi. He lived during the Chalcolithic or Copper Age, after man had learned how to exploit copper but before man had learned how to make bronze. His body and belongings were very well-preserved, and have been subjected to detailed scientific study. They are preserved in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology, Bolzano, South Tyrol, Italy.
There is evidence that Tyrol was a center for copper mining in the 4th millennium BC; for example, at Brixlegg. There is also evidence of the Urnfield culture.
Evidence of the La Tène culture has also been found; as has evidence of the Fritzens-Sanzeno culture from about the same period. Toward the end of that time, Tyrol began to be noted in Roman written records. The inhabitants may have been Illyrians, in the process of being displaced by Celts. There are also indications that Adriatic Veneti may have been present in the south of the region. The Romans called them Rhaetians; although it is not clear whether that then meant a specific tribe or confederation of tribes, or was a broader term for the inhabitants of the area. They made wine barrels, and had their own alphabet.

Roman times

In 15 BC, Tyrol was conquered by Roman forces commanded by Drusus and Tiberius. The Romans established Raetia and Noricum as provinces of the Roman Empire. Raetia included Vinschgau, Burggrafenamt, Eisacktal, Wipptal, Oberinntal and parts of the Unterinntal. Noricum included Pustertal, Defereggen and parts of the Unterinntal to the right of the Ziller and the Inn. Bolzano and the extreme south of Tyrol belonged to the province of Venetia et Histria.
The inhabitants adopted the Latin Language called vulgar Latin or the everyday spoken version vs. the standardized written formal form, and combined it with their own languages. The result was Romansh, which is still spoken today and is one of the official languages of Switzerland.
The Romans constructed metaled roads guarded by forts through Tyrol to connect the Italian peninsula and the lands beyond; notably the Via Claudia Augusta and the. The Romans did not seem to find Tyrol an attractive area in which to build new towns, because there are few of them. One town they did build was Aguntum, near modern Lienz.
In late antiquity, Tyrol belonged to the Ostrogoths, and it was included in the Ostrogothic Kingdom. In 534, the Ostrogoths lost Meran, Vinschgau and Passer to the Franks. The Ostrogothic Kingdom collapsed in 553, after being overrun by Bajuvarians from the north and Lombards from the south. The Lombards established the Duchy of Tridentum and lower parts of south Tyrol. Slavic peoples, who had recently taken Carinthia from the Bajuvarians, settled in east Tyrol.

Middle Ages

Most of Tyrol came under the control of the Duchy of Bavaria. The southern parts, including Bolzano, Salorno, and the right bank of the Adige remained under the Lombards. Tyrol was Christianized through the bishoprics of Brixen and Triento. The frontier remained the same through Carolingian and Ottonian times. The area was subject to Stammesrechte, such as Lex Romana Curiensis, Lex Alamannorum, Lex Baiuvariorum and Leges Langobardorum.
File:Am Schloss Tirol.jpg|thumb|left|Tyrol Castle in Tirol, near Merano
In 1027, Emperor Conrad II, in order to secure the important route through the Brenner Pass, allotted the left bank of the Adige to the Duchy of Bavaria. During the 12th century, the local nobility went further: they built Tyrol Castle in the modern comune of Tirol in South Tyrol, near modern Merano; and around 1140, established the County of Tyrol as a state within the Holy Roman Empire.
The Counts of Tyrol were at first Vogt subject to the Bishoprics of Brixen and Triento; but they had other ideas. They expanded their holdings at those bishoprics' expense. They displaced competing nobles like the, and declared their independence from the Duchy of Bavaria; though not without dispute. In 1228, they conceded the to the House of Wittelsbach, rulers of Bavaria; as a result, that area remains part of Bavaria to this day.
In 1253, rulership of the County passed by inheritance to the Meinhardiner family. In 1335, the last male heir to the Meinhardiner lands, Henry of Bohemia, died. His daughter, Margaret, thereupon became Countess of Tyrol; but her title was in doubt because of different laws in different lands as to what a woman could or could not inherit. She navigated her way between the competing claims of the Houses of Wittelsbach, Luxembourg and Habsburg by, in 1342, marrying Louis of Wittelsbach. Louis died in 1361. Margaret died in 1369, and bequeathed Tyrol to Rudolf of Habsburg. The various dynastic squabbles were resolved that same year by the, under which the Wittelsbachs agreed to relinquish their claims to Tyrol in favour of the Habsburgs.
When the Habsburgs took control of Tyrol, it had roughly its modern size. However, the Unterinntal downstream from Schwaz still belonged to Bavaria; the Zillertal and Brixental to Salzburg; Brixen and the Pustertal were episcopal territories, or part of the County of Gorizia. On the other hand, the Montafon and the Unterengadin were Tyrolean.
Tyrol was of great strategic importance to the Habsburgs. It controlled several important Alpine passes. It connected their landholdings in Further Austria. In 1406, as the Habsburg lands were split up by inheritance, Tyrol once again became a separate entity, in which the greater landowners had the right to be consulted. During a confusing succession of events, in 1420 Frederick IV, Duke of Austria moved the capital of Tyrol from Meran to Innsbruck, and Meran lost its earlier importance.