South Tyrol
South Tyrol (German Südtirol, Italian Alto Adige or Sudtirolo, Ladin Sudtirol) is an autonomous province of Italy. It shouldn't be confused with the autonomous region of Trentino-South Tyrol, of which it is a subdivison. South Tyrol's extensive autonomy makes it de facto comparable to an autonomous region of Italy.
In the aftermath of World War I part of Austrian Tyrol was occupied by Italy, and subsequently annexed, adding an area of 14,037 km² (5,420 mi²) to Italy. The areas around Trento formed Italian-speaking Trentino. In the north the valleys around Bozen/Bolzano were inhabited by ethnic Germans and Ladins. (Today Ladin is the third official language of South Tyrol, alongside German and Italian.)
After the rise of Fascism in 1922 a policy of de-Germanization was carried on ruthlessly. All places, up to the tiniest hamlet, were given Italian names, and even some family names were translated.
With the Treaty of Gruber-De Gasperi the winner of WWII decided to give South Tyrol to Italy but at the same time the German-speaking people were granted special rights.
Today South Tyrol (i.e. the Province of Bozen-Südtirol or Bolzano-Alto Adige) enjoys a high degree of autonomy, and relations with North and East Tyrol - the two portions of the old state retained by Austria - are lively, especially since Austria joined the European Union. There is a South Tyrolean People's Party, or Südtiroler Volkspartei. However, toponymes (names of places) still have two (German/Italian) or three (Ladin/German/Italian) versions.
According to the 2001 census more than two third of the population is German speaking (69.4 %), the second largest language is Italian (26.3 %), followed by Ladin (4.3 %).
| Table of contents |
|
2 Castles 3 Mountains 4 Subdivision 5 External links |
Freedom fighters:
Famous names
Revolutionaries:
Inventors and scientists:
Others:
Castles
Mountains
Subdivision
South Tyrol is divided into several (116) administrative regions/Villages (Gemeinden//Communes):
| German-Italian names: | ||
|
|
|
External links