Nauders () is a municipality in the district of

Landeck Landeck () is a city in the Austrian state of Tyrol, the capital of the district of Landeck. Geography Landeck is located in the Tyrolean Oberland in the west of the state at an elevation of about . The town is situated in the valley of the Inn ...

in the

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 ...

n state of

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

Geography

The town lies in the valley of the Stillebach (a tributary of the

Inn Inns are generally establishments or buildings where travelers can seek lodging, and usually, food and drink. Inns are typically located in the country or along a highway. Before the advent of motorized transportation, they also provided accomm ...

) in the

Ötztal Alps The Ötztal Alps (, ) are a mountain range in the Central Eastern Alps, in the Tyrol (state), State of Tyrol in western Austria and the South Tyrol, Province of South Tyrol in northern Italy. Geography The Ötztal Alps are arrayed at the head of ...

, at an altitude of . It is located about south of the district capital

, on the road that leads from

Pfunds Pfunds is a municipality in the district of Landeck (district), Landeck in the Federal states of Austria, Austrian state of Tyrol (state), Tyrol located 19.7 km south of the city of Landeck and 5 km north of the border to Switzerland. Th ...

in the Inntal valley via the narrow Finstermünz Gorge up to

Reschen Pass Reschen Pass (, ; ) is a mountain pass across the main chain of the Alps, connecting the Upper Inn Valley in the northwest with the Vinschgau region in the southeast. Since 1919, the border between South Tyrol, Italy and Tyrol, Austria has app ...

and the border with the Vinschgau region 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 ...

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 ...

. Nearby is the

tripoint A triple border, tripoint, trijunction, triple point, or tri-border area is a geography, geographical point at which the boundaries of three countries or Administrative division, subnational entities meet. There are 175 international tripoints ...

with the

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

border; in the west, a road leads into the Sesvenna Alps and to Martina in the Lower Engadin valley.

Climate

History

In ancient times, the trade route across Reschen Pass was part of the Roman

Via Claudia Augusta The Via Claudia Augusta is an ancient Roman road, which linked the valley of the Po River with Rhaetia (encompassing parts of modern Eastern Switzerland, Northern Italy, Western Austria, Southern Germany and all of Liechtenstein) across the Alp ...

, leading from

across the

Eastern Alps The Eastern Alps are usually defined as the area east of a line from Lake Constance and the Alpine Rhine valley, up to the Splügen Pass at the Main chain of the Alps, Alpine divide, and down the Liro (Como), Liro River to Lake Como in the south. ...

to the

Raetia Raetia or Rhaetia ( , ) was a province of the Roman Empire named after the Rhaetian people. It bordered on the west with the country of the Helvetii, on the east with Noricum, on the north with Vindelicia, on the south-west with Transalpine ...

n capital

Augusta Vindelicorum Augsburg ( , ; ; ) is a city in the Bavarian part of Swabia, Germany, around west of the Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and the regional seat of the Swabia with a well preserved Altstadt (historical city centre). Augsburg ...

(Augsburg). Nauders is probably located at the site of a

mansio In the Roman Empire, a ''mansio'' (from the Latin word ''mansus,'' the perfect passive participle of ''manere'' "to remain" or "to stay") was an official stopping place on a Roman road, or ''via'', maintained by the central government for the use ...

called ''Inutrium'' in contemporary sources. From 200 AD onwards, however, the significance of the road connection faded, when it was gradually superseded by the

Brenner Pass The Brenner Pass ( , shortly ; ) is a mountain pass over the Alps which forms the Austria-Italy border, border between Italy and Austria. It is one of the principal passes of the Alps, major passes of the Eastern Alpine range and has the lowes ...

road in the east. The ''Nudres'' parish itself was first mentioned in an 1150 deed; from the 13th century it housed an important

customs Customs is an authority or Government agency, agency in a country responsible for collecting tariffs and for controlling International trade, the flow of goods, including animals, transports, personal effects, and hazardous items, into and out ...

station. Over the centuries, numerous conflicts arose in the border area of the Tyrolean lands, held by the Austrian

House of Habsburg The House of Habsburg (; ), also known as the House of Austria, was one of the most powerful Dynasty, dynasties in the history of Europe and Western civilization. They were best known for their inbreeding and for ruling vast realms throughout ...

from 1363, with the

Swiss Confederacy The Old Swiss Confederacy, also known as Switzerland or the Swiss Confederacy, was a loose confederation of independent small states (, German or ), initially within the Holy Roman Empire. It is the precursor of the modern state of Switzerlan ...

, culminating in the

Swabian War The Swabian War of 1499 ( (spelling depending on dialect), called or ("Swiss War") in Germany and ("War of the Engadin" in Austria) was the last major armed conflict between the Old Swiss Confederacy and the House of Habsburg. What had begun ...

of 1499. Nauders, then part of the Tyrolean Vinschgau region in the south was administered from Naudersberg Castle, a medieval fortress erected in the early 14th century. In 1472 the Habsburg archduke

Sigismund of Austria Sigismund (26 October 1427 – 4 March 1496), a member of the House of Habsburg, was Duke of Austria from 1439 (elevated to Archduke in 1477) until his death. As a scion of the Habsburg Leopoldian line, he ruled over Further Austria and the ...

had the Finstermünz fortress erected in the narrow gorge of the

river. Finstermünz finally lost its function when a new mountain road up to the Nauders high valley was laid out according to plans by Karl von Ghega in 1854. The Austrian authorities had the Hochfinstermünz Fortress erected on the new road into the Inntal valley instead, modelled on Franzensfeste Fortress and the federal fortress in

Rastatt Rastatt () is a town with a Baroque core, District of Rastatt, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located in the Upper Rhine Plain on the Murg river, above its junction with the Rhine and has a population of around 51,000 (2022). Rastatt was an ...

and manned by '' k.k. Landesschützen'' detachments. At the end of World War II, numerous

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

officials such as

Eduard Roschmann Eduard Roschmann (25 November 1908 – 8 August 1977) was an Austrian Nazi SS-''Obersturmführer'' and commandant of the Riga Ghetto during 1943. He was responsible for numerous murders and other atrocities. As a result of a fictionalized port ...

and Oswald Menghin fled on a ratline through Nauders and Reschen Pass to escape arrest.

Notable people

Karl von Blaas Karl von Blaas (28 April 1815 – 19 March 1894) was an Austrian people, Austrian painter known for his portraits and religious compositions executed on canvas as well as in the form of frescoes. Biography Carl Von Blaas was born to a peasant fa ...

(1815–1894), painter * Ernst Hairer (born 1949), mathematician

References

External links

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