Ahrntal is a Gemeinde (municipality) and valley in South Tyrol

South Tyrol

South Tyrol , also known by its Italian name Alto Adige, is an autonomous province in northern Italy. It is one of the two autonomous provinces that make up the autonomous region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. The province has an area of and a total population of more than 500,000 inhabitants...

 in the northern Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 region Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol.

Geography

The municipality lies about 120 km northeast of the city of Trento

Trento

Trento is an Italian city located in the Adige River valley in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. It is the capital of Trentino...

 and about 70 km northeast of the city of Bolzano, on the border with Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

. As of 1 January 2007, it had a population of 5,881 and an area of 187.0 km².

Ahrntal borders the following municipalities: Mühlwald

Mühlwald

Mühlwald is a comune in South Tyrol in the Italian region Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, located about 110 km northeast of Trento and about 60 km northeast of Bolzano , on the border with Austria.-Geography:...

, Prettau

Prettau

Prettau is a comune in South Tyrol in the Italian region Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, located about 130 km northeast of Trento and about 80 km northeast of Bolzano, on the border with Austria....

, Sand in Taufers

Sand in Taufers

Sand in Taufers is a comune in South Tyrol in the Italian region Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, located about 110 km northeast of the city of Trento and about 70 km northeast of the city of Bolzano, on the border with Austria....

, Brandberg

Brandberg

Brandberg may refer to:*Brandberg, Austria, a municipality in the district of Schwaz in Tyrol*the former name of Dâures Constituency in the Erongo region of Namibia*the Brandberg Mountain in Namibia...

 (Austria), Finkenberg

Finkenberg

Finkenberg is a municipality in the Schwaz district of Tyrol, Austria....

 (Austria), and Mayrhofen

Mayrhofen

- Twin towns : Chur, Switzerland Bad Tölz, Germany Bad Homburg, Germany Terracina, Italy Cabourg, France Bad Mondorf, Luxembourg- Transport :Mayrhofen has one railway station, which is located next to the Zillertaler Bundestrasse. The station is a terminus for all Train services operated by the...

 (Austria).

Frazioni

The municipality of Ahrntal contains the frazioni

Frazione

A frazione , in Italy, is the name given in administrative law to a type of territorial subdivision of a comune; for other administrative divisions, see municipio, circoscrizione, quartiere...

(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 altitude of 1350 metres above sea level.

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

Pale (heraldry)

A pale is a term used in heraldic blazon and vexillology to describe a charge on a coat of arms , that takes the form of a band running vertically down the center of the shield. Writers broadly agree that the width of the pale ranges from about one-fifth to about one-third of the width of the...

: in the first and third are four and half points of argent

Argent

In heraldry, argent is the tincture of silver, and belongs to the class of light tinctures, called "metals". It is very frequently depicted as white and usually considered interchangeable with it...

 on azure

Azure

In heraldry, azure is the tincture with the colour blue, and belongs to the class of tinctures called "colours". In engraving, it is sometimes depicted as a region of horizontal lines or else marked with either az. or b. as an abbreviation....

, in the second a vert

Vert

The colour green is commonly found in modern flags and coat of arms, and to a lesser extent also in the classical heraldry of the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern period....

 pale with a wavy line of argent

Argent

In heraldry, argent is the tincture of silver, and belongs to the class of light tinctures, called "metals". It is very frequently depicted as white and usually considered interchangeable with it...

. The emblem show the position of the municipality along the green valley with the river Ahr

Ahr (South Tyrol)

The Ahr is a river in South Tyrol, Italy, which flows through the Tauferer Ahrntal.- References :* Information about the Ahr in and ....

and the mountains all around. The emblem was granted in 1969.

Linguistic distribution

According to the 2001 census, 98.79% of the population speak German, 1.07% Italian and 0.13% Ladin as first language.

External links

Homepage of the municipality