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Tyrol |
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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.
State AT-7 (ISO)
Capitol Innsbruck
Governor Herwig van Staa (ÖVP)
Area 12.648 km²
Population 700.000
Prehistory
In prehistory 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 South Tyrol, appears in the 14th century BC in the area of todays South Tyrol and Trentino, while the northern part of Tyrol comes under the influence of the Urnfield Culture[1]. 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 [2]. 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 Meran/Merano and Bozen/Bolzano 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 autoctonous and date back to before the roman conquest (see: Paleolithic Continuity Theory).
Middle Ages and early modern era
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.
Napoleonic Wars and 19th Century
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 [Crown Land] of Cisleithania, the western half of Austria-Hungary.
World War I and its aftermath
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 where taken prisoner[3].
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."[4]
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 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.
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