Villanders
Villanders ( Villandro Italian ) is a municipality with 1888 inhabitants ( 31 December 2012) in South Tyrol (Italy). It is located in Eisacktal above Klausen.
Geography
A street with ten turns leads Klausen into Villanderer village center. It lies at an altitude of 880 m. The district begins at an altitude of 491 m and extends to the top of the mountain on Villanderer 2509 m altitude. The municipality consists of the three fractions St. Stephen, St. Moritz and St. Valentin, whose natural boundaries form creeks and ravines that break through the mountainside of Villandro almost vertically ( Thinnebach, Plabach, Mühlbach and Zargenbach ).
It is one of the most popular holiday and recreational objectives of the Eisacktal. The traditional Toerggelen is used in Villandro. The surrounding area is ideal for walking, both in the valley and on the Alm Villanders is also famous for its publicly accessible mines.
Also well known is the graveyard at the Church of St. Stephan with its wrought-iron, facing away from the grave mound crosses.
There is also a village book that is divided into two parts. In the first part more scientific topics are explained, for example, excavations, the second part is a folkloric and contemporary record of Villandro.
History
Name
Villanders is documented for the first time in 1070 as Filandres 1085 already as Filanders, later Vilanders or Vylanders.
The origin of the place name Vill Anders, who is often " much different " attributed to the expression, is puzzling and could not be clearly understood. Sometimes the name is to pre-Roman origins back out (similar to the neighboring Verdings and Feldthurns ), other linguists tried to make Roman roots locate (eg "villa antrorum " or " valles Powertrai " ), while others even saw a connection with " Flanders " in Belgium. No interpretation is convincing. In Villanders even circulating the story, the place had earlier " Schoenberg " told, however, would have been devastated by a landslide and have after " much different " looked like.
Prehistory and Early History
The sunny slopes of Villandro probably has already attracted a very early period settlers who found the fertile moraine of Villandro good living conditions. Has been demonstrated for the adjacent Sarn Valley, and that this, was visited at least since the Mesolithic period from the people and economically used the surrounding mountains, including the Villanderer mountain and the Villanderer Alm are to be counted. Also on the opposite side of the Isarco Valley, at the Seiser Alm and in the field of Rasciesa Finds prove the existence of Middle Stone Age hunter groups. These findings, as well as the scenic qualities of the Villanderer Alm, which provides an ideal pasture for ibex, the preferred hunting animal Middle Stone Age hunter, suggest that the entire Villanderer Alm has already been used at that time in the summer as a hunting ground. In Villanderer village area occurred during excavations in the archaeological zone at Plunacker, a Mesolithic culture layer to light, the stone tools contained flint dating from the 8th or 7th century BC.
By starting from the year 5000 BC incipient Neolithic Age (Neolithic ) in South Tyrol certain farming and animal husbandry, the now sedentary life. The low mountain range in Villanders offered for favorable conditions. The finds in the archaeological zone Plunacker in Villanders among the most important of this period throughout the Alps. Finds from the Neolithic to the Villanderer Alm also confirmed by the presence of people at higher altitudes, but allow no conclusion to an agricultural use of the pasture in the strict sense.
The finds from the Late Stone Age and the subsequent Chalcolithic are sparse. On the Plunacker in Villanders the Copper Age is occupied by a cottage floor plan, one of the few finds of this kind in the Alps. Due to an onset in the 4th millennium climatic deterioration, the focus shifted to the livestock in forest and pastures. The Mountains was given in addition to the economic use, but also a supernaturally - cultic character.
In the Bronze Age (2200 - 900 BC) a new climate improvement facilitated agriculture even at higher altitudes. Although relatively few finds were in Villanders from this era made ( with the exception of the burnt offerings of the Seeberg ), but finds place in surrounding communities ( Brixen, Saubach, Barbian ) has a continuous history of settlement close. Mining was probably already operated and sold the recovered copper to the south, to Lake Garda and in the Po Valley. The Mediterranean influence on the Southern Alps area now shows itself also in the spiritual world: according to model Etruscan writing was introduced and the idea of the gods resembled the Greek and the Italic / Etruscan.
Roman
The Roman era in what is now South Tyrol begins no later than the Emperor Augustus (31 BC - 14 AD) and goes back to the 5th and 6th century AD The area around Villanders was continuously inhabited at this time, but still only selectively. The only finds have been made on the Plunacker. Here they discovered the remains of a large and sumptuously appointed, Roman villa. The area between rides and Villanders was at this time in the border area between Trento / Tridentum, Noricum and Raetia, but for lack of finds a specific write-up is not possible.
Middle Ages
(About 500-1350 AD) As in other areas of South Tyrol traces from the Early and High Middle Ages are also in Villanders very rare. Whilst it can accept a settlement continuity, but it has not succeeded the continued habitation of a farm from late antiquity to prove to the High Middle Ages.