Vils (Lech)

View from the Castle Falkenstein Pfronten at the Tyrolean Vilstal

The Vils is a 34 km long tributary of the Lech river in the Alps in Austria and Germany. The Vils drains a 200 km ² catchment area with average annual rainfall of over 1500 mm.

It rises in the Allgäu Alps in Tirol ( Austria ) from the tributaries of the Vilsalpsee and is its only outlet. Your water first flows in a northerly and northwesterly directions in the district of Reutte by the Vils and Tannheimer valley and in the latter along the B199 through Tannheim Zöblen and Schattwald. Then the Vils crashes below or only slightly east-northeast of Oberjochpasses and only a few hundred meters east of the border with Germany northward flowing through the Vilsfall. Then you waters above occurs the border to southern Bavaria ( Germany ), turns to the northeast and reached in the district Ostallgaeu the community Pfronten.

Then it flows along the B 308 to the east, transgresses the border to Tyrol, flows below the Tannheimer mountains just south of the border with Germany and parallel to it by the municipality Vils and opens directly after the lower crossing of the Fern Pass federal road B 179 in the Lech.

Within the framework of a LIFE project both environmentally protective water structurally Vils is given a new value. The construction provide flood protection for the city Vils. At the same time the river is again given enough leeway to make for animals and plants characteristic habitats and reshape itself.

The Vils is used throughout the course on water quality class I-II.

Shortly before its confluence with the Lech has Vils a mean discharge of 7.68 m³ / s