St. Martin in Passeier is a comune

Comune

In Italy, the comune is the basic administrative division, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality.-Importance and function:...

(municipality) in the Passeier Valley

Passeier Valley

The Passeier Valley is the valley of the Passer river, in the mountains of South Tyrol, northern Italy. The Passer river is a left-bank tributary to the Adige. At the mouth of the valley, where the two rivers join, stands the town of Meran...

 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...

, 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...

, located about 80 km north 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 35 km northwest of Bolzano (Bozen).

Geography

As of 30 November 2010, it had a population of 3,137 and an area of 30.5 km².

The municipality of St Martin in Passeier 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) Saltaus (Saltusio), Quellenhof (Sorgente), Ried (Novale), Kalmtal (Valclava), Christl (Cresta), Flon (Vallone), and Matatz (Montaccio),

St Martin in Passeier borders the following municipalities: Moos in Passeier

Moos in Passeier

Moos in Passeier is a comune in the Passeier Valley, in South Tyrol in the Northern Italian region Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol...

, Riffian, and St Leonhard in Passeier.

Coat-of-arms

The coat of arms is 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...

 and 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....

 party per pale

Division of the field

In heraldry, the field of a shield can be divided into more than one area of different tinctures, usually following the lines of one of the ordinaries and carrying its name...

; in the first part is an azure halberd

Halberd

A halberd is a two-handed pole weapon that came to prominent use during the 14th and 15th centuries. Possibly the word halberd comes from the German words Halm , and Barte - in modern-day German, the weapon is called Hellebarde. The halberd consists of an axe blade topped with a spike mounted on...

, in the second half an argent wheel, with four rays. The halberd symbolizes the privileges of the free farmers, while the wheel the village laboriousness.

Linguistic distribution

According to the 2001 census, 98.74% of the population speak German, 1.23% Italian and 0.04% Ladin

Ladin

Ladin is a language consisting of a group of dialects spoken in the Dolomite Mountains in Northern Italy in the border regions of the provinces Trentino, South Tyrol and Belluno...

as first language.

External links

Homepage of the municipality