The Dreiherrnspitze ( it, Picco dei Tre Signori), at

above mean sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance ( height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as '' orthometric heights''. Th ...

, is a mountain on the

tripoint A tripoint, trijunction, triple point, or tri-border area is a geographical point at which the boundaries of three countries or subnational entities meet. There are 175 international tripoints as of 2020. Nearly half are situated in rivers, l ...

between the

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n states of

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label= Austro-Bavarian) is the fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the Roman settlement of ''Iuvavum''. Salzburg was founded ...

and

Tyrol Tyrol (; historically the Tyrole; de-AT, Tirol ; it, Tirolo) is a historical region in the Alps - in Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Emp ...

(i.e.

East Tyrol East Tyrol, occasionally East Tirol (german: Osttirol), is an exclave of the Austrian state of Tyrol, separated from the main North Tyrol part by the short common border of Salzburg and Italian South Tyrol (''Südtirol'', it, Alto Adige). It i ...

), and

South Tyrol it, Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano – Alto Adige lld, Provinzia Autonoma de Balsan/Bulsan – Südtirol , settlement_type = Autonomous area, Autonomous Provinces of Italy, province , image_skyline = ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. It is part of the

Venediger Group The Venediger Group (german: Venedigergruppe) is a mountain range of the Central Eastern Alps. Together with the Granatspitze Group, the Glockner Group, the Goldberg Group, and the Ankogel Group, it forms the main ridge of the High Tauern. The hi ...

in the

Hohe Tauern The High Tauern ( pl.; german: Hohe Tauern, it, Alti Tauri) are a mountain range on the main chain of the Central Eastern Alps, comprising the highest peaks east of the Brenner Pass. The crest forms the southern border of the Austrian states of ...

range of the

Central Eastern Alps The Central Eastern Alps (german: Zentralalpen or Zentrale Ostalpen), also referred to as Austrian Central Alps (german: Österreichische Zentralalpen) or just Central Alps, comprise the main chain of the Eastern Alps in Austria and the adjacen ...

and the Alpine divide. Dreiherrnspitze

The name is derived from the fact, that upon the 1271 partition within the Tyrolean

Meinhardiner The Counts of Gorizia (german: Grafen von Görz; it, Conti di Gorizia; sl, Goriški grofje), also known as the Meinhardiner, were a comital, princely and ducal dynasty in the Holy Roman Empire. Named after Gorizia Castle in Gorizia (now in I ...

dynasty, the territories of the

Counts of Tyrol The (Princely) County of Tyrol was an estate of the Holy Roman Empire established about 1140. After 1253, it was ruled by the House of Gorizia and from 1363 by the House of Habsburg. In 1804, the County of Tyrol, unified with the secularised p ...

and the East Tyrolean estates of the Counts of Görz bordered on the lands of the Archbishops of Salzburg at the peak. The summit is characterised by its steep rock faces to the northeast, surrounded by numerous

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such as ...

s. A first ascent was documented in 1866.

Location

The mountain is surrounded by

s. To the north, at the foot of the Northeast Face, is the heavily

crevasse A crevasse is a deep crack, that forms in a glacier or ice sheet that can be a few inches across to over 40 feet. Crevasses form as a result of the movement and resulting stress associated with the shear stress generated when two semi-rigid pie ...

d ''Krimmler Kees'' with its jagged

icefall An icefall is a portion of certain glaciers characterized by relatively rapid flow and chaotic crevassed surface, caused in part by gravity. The term ''icefall'' is formed by analogy with the word ''waterfall'', which is a similar phenomenon of ...

s. To the east and south lies the Umbalkees, which climbs to a height of 3,400 metres; to the west is the ''Lahner Kees'' which extends far into the summit region. Neighbouring peaks include the ''Umbalköpfl'', 600 metres away on the course of the prominent East Arête at 3,426 m and, a further 1,000 metres to the east, the 3,481-metre-high Western Simonyspitze, which is named after Austrian alpine researcher and geographer, Friedrich Simony. On the course of the ''Roßhufkamm'' ridge to the southwest and about 2,200 metres away is the ''Hoher Roßhuf'' at 3,199 m. Along the northwestern ridge of the main chain of the Tauern (the ''Tauernhauptkamm'') lies the ''Grasleitenkopf'' (2,954 m). The nearest important settlements are the village of ''Kasern'', 9 kilometres away to the southwest (

as the crow flies __NOTOC__ The expression ''as the crow flies'' is an idiom for the most direct path between two points, rather similar to "in a beeline". This meaning is attested from the early 19th century, and appeared in Charles Dickens's 1838 novel ''Oliver ...

) in the South Tyrolean valley of Ahrntal. Also 9 km distant, albeit to the southeast, is the Austrian village of Hinterbichl near Prägraten in the Virgental valley.

References

*Willi End: '' Alpenvereinsführer Venedigergruppe'', Munich 2006, *Eduard Richter, Hrsg.: ''Erschließung der Ostalpen, III. Band'', Verlag des Deutschen und Oesterreichischen Alpenvereins, Berlin 1894 *''

Alpenvereinskarte Alpine Club maps (german: Alpenvereinskarten, often abbreviated to ''AV-Karten'' i.e. AV maps) are specially detailed maps for summer and winter mountain climbers (mountaineers, hikers and ski tourers). They are predominantly published at a scale o ...

'' 1:25.000, Sheet 36, ''Venedigergruppe''

External links

{{Commons category-inline Mountains of the Alps Mountains of Salzburg (state) Mountains of Tyrol (state) Mountains of South Tyrol Alpine three-thousanders Austria–Italy border International mountains of Europe Venediger Group Rieserferner-Ahrn Nature Park