Ahrntal (; ) is a ''

comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...

'' (municipality) in

South Tyrol South Tyrol ( , ; ; ), officially the Autonomous Province of Bolzano – South Tyrol, is an autonomous administrative division, autonomous provinces of Italy, province in northern Italy. Together with Trentino, South Tyrol forms the autonomo ...

in northern

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, located about northeast of the city of

Bolzano Bolzano ( ; ; or ) is the capital city of South Tyrol (officially the province of Bolzano), Northern Italy. With a population of 108,245, Bolzano is also by far the largest city in South Tyrol and the third largest in historical Tyrol. The ...

(''Bozen''), near the border to

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

Geography

Ahrntal borders the following municipalities: Mühlwald, Prettau, Sand in Taufers, Brandberg (Austria), Finkenberg (Austria), and

Mayrhofen Mayrhofen is a town in the Zillertal (Ziller river valley) in the Austrian state of Tirol, Austria, Tyrol. It is located approximately an hour from the Tyrolean capital city of Innsbruck. Population Tourism The town offers a variety of summer an ...

(Austria).

Frazioni

The municipality contains the ''

frazioni A ''frazione'' (: ''frazioni'') is a type of subdivision of a ''comune'' ('municipality') in Italy, often a small village or hamlet outside the main town. Most ''frazioni'' were created during the Fascist era (1922–1943) as a way to consolidat ...

'' (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 has an elevation of above sea level.

Topography

To the north, west and southwest, the municipality is surrounded by the

Zillertal Alps The Zillertal Alps (; ) are a mountain range of the Central Eastern Alps on the border of Austria and Italy. Name The range is named after the Zillertal (Ziller river valley) on its north. Geography The range is bounded by the ''Tuxerjoch'' m ...

. The main chain of these Alps at the head of the valley also forms the border with

. Amongst the most important mountains in the municipality are the Turnerkamp (3,418 m), the Hornspitzen, the Schwarzenstein (3,369 m), the Großer Löffler (3,379 m), the Wollbachspitze (3,210 m) and the Napfspitze (3,144 m). The ranges to the west and southwest, including the Speikboden massiv, separate the village of Ahrntal from Mühlwald in the Mühlwalder Tal. To the southeast are the Durreck Group, a subrange of the Venediger Group with the Durreck (3,135 m) and the Hirbernock (3,010 m) which form the boundary of the municipality of Reintal and its village of Rein in Taufers. Large parts of the Durreck Group are protected as part of the Rieserferner-Ahrn Nature Park.

History

A highlight 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: in the first and third are four and half points of

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. In engravings and line drawings, regions to b ...

on azure, in the second a

vert Vert or Verts may refer to: * Vert (heraldry), the colour green in heraldry * Vert (music producer) (born 1972), pseudonym of Adam Butler, an English music producer * Vert (river), in southern France * Vert (sport), a competition in extreme versio ...

pale with a wavy line of argent. The emblem show the position of the municipality along the green valley with the river Ahr and the mountains all around. The emblem was granted in 1969.

Notable people

* Simon Maurberger (born 1995), World Cup alpine ski racer.

Society

Linguistic distribution

According to the 2024 census, 98.14% of the population speak German, 1.57%

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

and 0.29% Ladin as first language.

Demographic evolution

Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) id:sfondo value:rgb(1,1,1) id:barra value:rgb(0.6,0.7,0.8) ImageSize = width:455 height:303 PlotArea = left:50 bottom:50 top:30 right:30 DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:6000 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:500 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:100 start:0 BackgroundColors = canvas:sfondo BarData= bar:1860 text:1860 bar:1870 text:1870 bar:1880 text:1880 bar:1900 text:1900 bar:1910 text:1910 bar:1921 text:1921 bar:1931 text:1931 bar:1936 text:1936 bar:1951 text:1951 bar:1961 text:1961 bar:1971 text:1971 bar:1981 text:1981 bar:1991 text:1991 bar:2001 text:2001 PlotData= color:barra width:20 align:left bar:1860 from: 0 till:0 bar:1870 from: 0 till:0 bar:1880 from: 0 till:3125 bar:1900 from: 0 till:0 bar:1910 from: 0 till:3126 bar:1921 from: 0 till:3263 bar:1931 from: 0 till:3274 bar:1936 from: 0 till:3581 bar:1951 from: 0 till:4085 bar:1961 from: 0 till:4360 bar:1971 from: 0 till:4630 bar:1981 from: 0 till:4934 bar:1991 from: 0 till:5261 bar:2001 from: 0 till:5517 PlotData= bar:1860 at:0 fontsize:XS text: ? shift:(-8,5) bar:1870 at:0 fontsize:XS text: ? shift:(-8,5) bar:1880 at:3125 fontsize:XS text: 3125 shift:(-8,5) bar:1900 at:0 fontsize:XS text: ? shift:(-8,5) bar:1910 at:3126 fontsize:XS text: 3126 shift:(-8,5) bar:1921 at:3263 fontsize:XS text: 3263 shift:(-8,5) bar:1931 at:3274 fontsize:XS text: 3274 shift:(-8,5) bar:1936 at:3581 fontsize:XS text: 3581 shift:(-8,5) bar:1951 at:4085 fontsize:XS text: 4085 shift:(-8,5) bar:1961 at:4360 fontsize:XS text: 4360 shift:(-8,5) bar:1971 at:4630 fontsize:XS text: 4630 shift:(-8,5) bar:1981 at:4934 fontsize:XS text: 4934 shift:(-8,5) bar:1991 at:5261 fontsize:XS text: 5261 shift:(-8,5) bar:2001 at:5517 fontsize:XS text: 5517 shift:(-8,5) TextData= fontsize:S pos:(20,20) text:Data from ISTAT

References

External links

* {{Authority control Rieserferner-Ahrn Nature Park Articles which contain graphical timelines