The Venediger Group () is a

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have aris ...

of the

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

. Together with the

Granatspitze Group The Granatspitze Group (), sometimes also the Granatspitz Group, is a sub-group of the Central Alps within the Eastern Alps. Together with the Ankogel Group, the Goldberg Group, the Glockner Group, the Schober Group, the Kreuzeck Group, the Ven ...

, the

Glockner Group The Glockner GroupKev Reynolds, Reynolds, Kev (2005). ''Walking in the Alps'', 2nd ed., Cicerone, Singapore, p.409, . () is a sub-group of the Austrian Central Alps in the Eastern Alps, and is located in the centre section of the High Tauern on ...

, the

Goldberg Group The Goldberg Group is a sub-group of the Hohe Tauern mountain range within the Central Eastern Alps. It is located in Austria, in the States of Austria, states of Salzburg (state), Salzburg and Carinthia (state), Carinthia. Its highest peak is the ...

, and the Ankogel Group, it forms the main ridge of the

High Tauern The High Tauern (plural, pl.; , ) are a mountain range on the Main chain of the Alps, 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 Salz ...

. The highest peak is the Großvenediger at , which gives its name to the group. Considerable parts of the Venediger Group belong to the core zone of the High Tauern

National Park A national park is a nature park designated for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes because of unparalleled national natural, historic, or cultural significance. It is an area of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that is protecte ...

Geography

The Venediger Group is located in

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 ...

in the federal states of

Salzburg Salzburg is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020 its population was 156,852. The city lies on the Salzach, Salzach River, near the border with Germany and at the foot of the Austrian Alps, Alps moun ...

and

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 ...

, and also in

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 ...

in the autonomous province of

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 ...

. The greater part of the range lies in

East Tyrol East Tyrol, occasionally East Tirol (), is an exclave of the Austrian federal state of Tyrol, separated from North Tyrol by parts of Salzburg State and parts of Italian South Tyrol (''Südtirol'', ). It is coterminous with the administrative ...

. The Venediger Group includes the western part of the main chain of the High Tauern range. The Felber Tauern pass road runs across the Alpine crest between Salzburg and East Tyrol on the eastern side of the range. The Venediger Group is the most

glaciated A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires d ...

mountain range in the High Tauern. The renown of the main summit in the group, the Großvenediger, rather overshadows the other regions and mountains, though the group has a great number of peaks, mountain paths and Alpine huts. The origin of its name is unclear. According to a legend, when local shepherds saw the giant mass of the Venediger glacier for the first time they thought they were looking at the glistening surface of the sea with a town (“

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

”). Nevertheless, the name may go back to medieval Welsh (Venetian)

prospectors Prospecting is the first stage of the geological analysis (followed by exploration) of a territory. It is the search for minerals, fossils, precious metals, or mineral specimens. It is also known as fossicking. Traditionally prospecting rel ...

searching for

Cobalt Cobalt is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. ...

and

Manganese Manganese is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese was first isolated in the 1770s. It is a transition m ...

ores in the area.

Neighbouring ranges

The Venediger Group borders on the following other ranges in the Alps: *

Kitzbühel Alps The Kitzbühel Alps ( or ''Kitzbühler Alpen'') are a mountain range of the Central Eastern Alps surrounding the town of Kitzbühel in Tyrol, Austria. Geologically they are part of the western slate zone ( greywacke zone). Location Two-thirds of ...

(to the north) *

(to the east) *

Villgraten Mountains The Villgraten Mountains () 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 Eastern Alps of Europe. Togethe ...

(to the south) *

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 ...

(to the southwest) *

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 ...

(to the west)

Boundaries

To the north the Oberpinzgau valley of the

Salzach The Salzach (Austrian: �saltsax ) is a river in Austria and Germany. It is in length and is a right tributary of the Inn (river), Inn, which eventually joins the Danube. Its drainage basin of comprises large parts of the Northern Limeston ...

river forms the boundary from Krimml downstream to the town of

Mittersill Mittersill (; ) is a city in the federal state of Salzburg, Austria, in the Pinzgau region of the Alps. It is located on the Salzach River. It has a population of 5,408 as of 2011. Geography Mittersill lies approximately 25 km to the west o ...

. To the east the boundary runs from Mittersill southwards up the Felberbach stream, over the Felber Tauern pass and continues down the Tauernbach to

Matrei in Osttirol Matrei in Osttirol is a market town in the Lienz District in the Austrian state of Tyrol (East Tyrol). It is situated about north of Lienz within the Hohe Tauern mountain range of the Central Eastern Alps. Its municipal area comprises parts of th ...

. From there it continues southwards along the Isel river to the village of Huben (part of the Matrei municipality). To the south the

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

delineates the boundary from Huben along the Schwarzach heading upstream as far as the Jagdhaus alp and the Klammljoch pass. From the Klammljoch it runs downhill along the Klammlbach and through the South Tyrolean Rein valley to

Sand in Taufers Sand in Taufers (; ) is a ''comune mercato'' (market town) in South Tyrol in northern Italy. Geography Located about northeast of Bolzano, the town centre is situated in the Tauferer Ahrntal (Taufers) valley of the Ahr river, stretching from ...

. In the west its perimeter runs along the

Tauferer Ahrntal The Tauferer Ahrntal denotes the valley of the Ahr (South Tyrol), Ahr () River, a tributary valley of the Puster Valley in South Tyrol, Italy. It is commonly divided into the Tauferer Tal (''Val di Tures''), stretching from the confluence with th ...

valley from Sand in Taufers up to

Birnlücke The Birnlücke () is the border pass at the western end of the Hohe Tauern mountains in Austria, between the Venediger Group and the adjoining Zillertal Alps. The Austria–Italy border, border between Austria and Italy has run over the pass since ...

Pass and down the Krimmler Ache to Krimml in the Salzach valley. The Birnlücke links the Venediger Group with the Zillertal Alps. The Klammljoch is its junction with the Rieserferner Group. The Felber Tauern join the Venediger Group to the Granatspitze Group. Whilst clearly defined side ridges regularly branch off northwards from the main chain of the Venediger Group, towards the south the mountain tend to sprawl over a larger area forming their own subgroups: the Durreck Group, the Panargenkamm and 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 ...

. Located between the heavily glaciated main crest and the Lasörling Group west of Matrei, the

Virgen Virgen is a municipality in the district of Lienz in the Austrian state of Tyrol. It includes part of the Virgen valley in the Venediger Group mountain range, and extensive parts of the municipality are in High Tauern National Park. The history o ...

valley the only permanently settled valley within the Venediger Group.

Peaks

All the named

three-thousander Three-thousanders are mountains with a height of between , but less than above sea level. Similar terms are commonly used for mountains of other height brackets e. g. four-thousanders or eight-thousanders. In Britain, the term refers to mount ...

s in the Venediger Group:ÖK5
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Tourism

The Venediger Group is well developed for tourism. In addition to a myriad managed Alpine pastures and restaurants there is also a large number of

Alpine Club hut Alpine club huts () or simply club huts (''Clubhütten'') form the majority of the over 1,300 mountain huts in the Alps and are maintained by branches, or sections, of the various Alpine clubs. Although the usual English translation of ''Hütte'' i ...

References

External links

{{Authority control Mountain ranges of the Alps Hohe Tauern Mountain ranges of Salzburg (federal state) Mountain ranges of Trentino-South Tyrol Mountain ranges of Tyrol (federal state) Geography of East Tyrol Mountain ranges of South Tyrol Rieserferner-Ahrn Nature Park Zell am See District