Ahrntal

Ahrntal
Comune
Gemeinde Ahrntal Comune Valle Aurina
Mining museum
Ahrntal Location of Ahrntal in Italy
Coordinates:
Country	Italy
Region	Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol
Province / Metropolitan city	South Tyrol (BZ)
Frazioni	Luttach (Lutago), Steinhaus (Cadipietra), St. Jakob (San Giacomo), St. Johann (San Giovanni), St. Peter (San Pietro) and Weißenbach (Riobianco)
Government
• Mayor	Helmut Gebhard Klammer
Area
• Total	187.0 km2 (72.2 sq mi)
Elevation	1,054 m (3,458 ft)
Population (2010)
• Total	5,881
• Density	31/km2 (81/sq mi)
Demonym(s)	German: Ahrntaler or Töldra Italian: della Valle Aurina
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code	39030
Dialing code	0474
Website	Official website

Ahrntal (Italian: Valle Aurinacode: it is deprecated ) is a Gemeinde or comune (municipality) in South Tyrol in northern Italy, located about 70 kilometres (43 mi) northeast of the city of Bolzano (Bozen), on the border with Austria.

Geography

Ahrntal borders the following municipalities: Mühlwald, Prettau, Sand in Taufers, Brandberg (Austria), Finkenberg (Austria), and Mayrhofen (Austria).

Frazioni

The municipality of Ahrntal contains the frazioni (subdivisions, mainly villages and hamlets) Luttach (Lutago), Steinhaus (Cadipietra), St. Jakob (San Giacomo), St. Johann (San Giovanni), St. Peter (San Pietro) and Weißenbach (Riobianco).

Weißenbach is composed of picturesque alpine farmhouses, grouped around the foaming white glacial stream from which its name is derived. With a population of around 550, it sits at an elevation of 1,350 metres (4,430 ft) above sea level.

Topography

To the north, west and southwest the municipality is surrounded by the Zillertal Alps. The main chain of these Alps at the head of the valley also forms the border with Austria. Amongst the most important mountains in the municipality are the Turnerkamp (3,418 m), the Hornspitzen, the Schwarzenstein (3,369 m), the Großer Löffler (3,379 m), the Wollbachspitze (3,210 m) and the Napfspitze (3,144 m). The ranges to the west and southwest, including the Speikboden massiv, separate the village of Ahrntal from Mühlwald in the Mühlwalder Tal. To the southeast are the Durreck Group, a subrange of the Venediger Group with the Durreck (3,135 m) and the Hirbernock (3,010 m) which form the boundary of the municipality of Reintal and its village of Rein in Taufers. Large parts of the Durreck Group are protected as part of the Rieserferner-Ahrn Nature Park.

History

The pride of the village is the Church of St. Jacob, dating from the 16th century. The church houses a valuable winged altar from 1516, which was restored in 1884. Also of note are both the modern extension to the church building and the newly arranged adjoining cemetery.

Place name

A name for the valley was first recorded in written sources in the 11th century. An Aurina vallis is mentioned in 1048, between 1070 and 1080 Ourin or Ouren appear in documents.

Coat-of-arms

The emblem is tierced of paly: in the first and third are four and half points of argent on azure, in the second a vert pale with a wavy line of argent. The emblem show the position of the municipality along the green valley with the river Ahr and the mountains all around. The emblem was granted in 1969.

Society

Linguistic distribution

According to the 2011 census, 98.76% of the population speak German, 0.93% Italian and 0.31% Ladin as first language.

Language	2001	2011
German	98.79%	98.76%
Italian	1.07%	0.93%
Ladin	0.13%	0.31%

Demographic evolution

See also

• Tauferer Ahrntal

External links

Media related to at Wikimedia Commons

• (German) (Italian) Homepage of the municipality