Anras is a municipality in the district of

Lienz Lienz (; Southern Bavarian: ''Lianz'') is a medieval town in the Austrian state of Tyrol. It is the administrative centre of the Lienz district, which covers all of East Tyrol. The municipality also includes the cadastral subdivision of ''Patr ...

in 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 state of

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 ...

Geography

The settlement is situated in the

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 ...

ean part of the

Puster Valley The Puster Valley ( it, Val Pusteria ; german: Pustertal, ) is one of the largest longitudinal valleys in the Alps that runs in an east-west direction between Lienz in East Tyrol, Austria, and Mühlbach near Brixen in South Tyrol, Italy. The Sou ...

, stretching along the upper

Drava The Drava or Drave''Utrata Fachwörterbuch ...

river between the

Villgraten Mountains The Villgraten Mountains (german: Villgratner Berge) or Deferegg Alps (''Deferegger Alpen''), also called the Defreggen Mountains (''Defreggengebirge'', archaically also with ''"ff"'') are a subgroup of the Austrian Central Alps within the Easte ...

(Defereggen) in the north to the foothills of the Lienz

Dolomites The Dolomites ( it, Dolomiti ; Ladin: ''Dolomites''; german: Dolomiten ; vec, Dołomiti : fur, Dolomitis), also known as the Dolomite Mountains, Dolomite Alps or Dolomitic Alps, are a mountain range located in northeastern Italy. They form pa ...

, the westernmost peaks of the

Gailtal Alps , ''Drauzug'' , photo=Grosse Sandspitze 1.jpg , photo_size= , photo_caption=Große Sandspitze, the highest peak in the range , country= Austria , subdivision1_type= States , subdivision1= , parent= , geology= Limestone , orogeny=Alpine o ...

. The farmsteads lie mostly on the sunny terraces or on the valley floor north of the Drava. The municipal area comprises the

cadastral communities A cadastral community or cadastral municipality, is a Cadastre, cadastral subdivision of Municipality, municipalities in the nations of Austria,Cadastral Template for Austria, web-pageCT-AT Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Ser ...

of Anras proper, Asch-Winkl, and Ried.

History

From about 1200, Anras Castle was built as a summer residence of the

Bishops of Brixen A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

. In 1236 Emperor Frederick II granted them the surrounding Puster Valley estates up to the

suburbs, where they bordered the lands of the rivalling

Counts of Gorizia The County of Gorizia ( it, Contea di Gorizia, german: Grafschaft Görz, sl, Goriška grofija, fur, Contee di Gurize), from 1365 Princely County of Gorizia, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire. Originally mediate ''Vogts'' of the Patriarchs of ...

. The castle was rebuilt in a Baroque style in 1754 and served as the seat of the local administration. The territories were held by the Brixen prince-bishops until the

secularisation In sociology, secularization (or secularisation) is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions. The ''secularization thesis'' expresses t ...

of 1803. Up to today, the fertile soils of Anras are known as the East Tyrolean breadbasket.

References

External links

Cities and towns in Lienz District {{Tyrol-geo-stub