The Defereggen Valley (), or simply Defereggen (), is the middle of the three East Tyrolean high mountain valleys running from east to west. Its parallel-running neighbours are the

Puster Valley The Puster Valley ( ; , ) 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 South Tyrolean municipalities of th ...

and the Virgen Valley. The Defereggen Valley is linked by a road called the Defereggentalstraße. Its name is derived from the Celtic word ''dubar'' (black, dark) or from the Slavic ''dober'' (good).Hannes Hintermeier in FAZ.Net
''Hat's passt? Passt schon!''
(no date; read: end April 2011) It lies in the High Tauern National Park and is surrounded by the peaks of the Defereggen range, the

Rieserferner Group The Rieserferner Group (, ) is a mountain range in the Austrian Central Alps. Together with the Ankogel Group, Goldberg Group, Glockner Group, Schober Group, Kreuzeck Group, Granatspitze Group, Venediger Group and the Villgraten Mountains the grou ...

, the

Lasörling Group The Lasörling Group () is a subgroup of the Central Alps within the Eastern Alps. The boundaries of this mountain range in East Tyrol are principally delineated by the valleys of the Virgental in the north and the Defereggental in the south. Accor ...

and the Schober Group. The Schwarzach river flows through the valley. There are three municipalities in the valley:

Hopfgarten in Defereggen Hopfgarten in Defereggen is a municipality in the district of Lienz in the Austrian state of Tyrol Tyrol ( ; historically the Tyrole; ; ) is a historical region in the Alps of Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically t ...

, St. Veit in Defereggen and St. Jakob in Defereggen. The Defereggen Valley has been settled since the 7th century by settlers who entered it over the Staller Saddle and the Klammljoch, both crossings into the present day

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 ...

. Even today the South Tyrolese have grazing rights in the upper Defereggen Valley. The main village of St. Jakob im Defereggental is the oldest settlement in East Tyrol. On the other side of the Staller Saddle is the Antholz valley. In the 17th century about half the population of the Defereggen Valley left the

Roman Catholic church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

and became

Protestants Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

. After they refused the

Archbishop of Salzburg The Archdiocese of Salzburg (; ) is a Latin Church, Latin rite archdiocese of the Catholic Church centered in Salzburg, Austria. It is also the principal diocese of the ecclesiastical province of Salzburg. The archdiocese is one of two Austrian ...

’s direction to return, in 1684 they were forced to leave the valley. They had to leave their children behind and to sell their property. These emigrants settled mainly in the area of the present-day German states of

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

and

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

. The Defereggen Valley is protected within the Hohe Tauern National Park, and counts as one of the most unspoiled mountain valleys of the Alps. It is 60km long, and thus one of the longest as well as least populated valleys of the

Austrian Alps The Central Eastern Alps (), also referred to as Austrian Central Alps () or just Central Alps, comprise the Main chain of the Alps, main chain of the Eastern Alps in Austria and the adjacent regions of Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Italy and Slov ...

Panorama

References

External links

The Defereggen Valley and its municipalities
{{coord missing, Austria Valleys of Tyrol (federal state) Geography of East Tyrol