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 Alpine divide, and down the Liro River to Lake Como in the south. The peaks and mountain passes are lower than the Western Alps, while the range itself is broader and less arched.
Excepting other peaks in the Bernina range, the next highest is the Ortler at 3,905 m (12,812 ft) in Italian South Tyrol[4] and third the Großglockner, which stands on the border of Carinthia & East Tyrol in Austria, at 3,798 m (12,461 ft), the highest mountain of Austria. The region around the Großglockner and the adjacent Pasterze Glacier has been a special protection area within the High Tauern National Park since 1986.[5] Other high Tyrolian mountains include Königspitze (3,851 m),[4]Monte Cevedale (3,769 m),[4] and Wildspitze (3,768 m).[4]
The city of Innsbruck is in the broad valley between high mountains of the so-called North Chain in the Karwendel Alps (Hafelekarspitze, 2,334 metres or 7,657 feet) to the north and Patscherkofel (2,246 m or 7,369 ft) and Serles (2,718 m or 8,917 ft) to the south. The name "Innsbruck" means 'bridge over the Inn'.[6]
Vorarlberg's notable mountain ranges include the Silvretta, the Rätikon, the Verwall and the Arlberg. The highest mountain is the Piz Buin, whose rocky peak of 3,312 m (10,866 ft). The Silvretta Alps cut across Tirol and Vorarlberg (both in Austria), and Graubünden (Switzerland).
Mount Sulzfluh is well frequented by climbers and is situated in the Rätikon range of the Alps, on the border between Austria and Switzerland. On the eastern side is a mountain path, of grade T4,[7] allowing non-climbers to reach the 2817 metre summit. There are six known caves in the limestone mountain, with lengths between 800 and 3000 or more yards, all with entrances on the Eastern side, in Switzerland.[8]
Mount Grauspitz (Vorder Grauspitze or Vorder Grauspitz on some maps) is the highest summit of the Rätikon, located on the border between Liechtenstein and Switzerland.
About half of Liechtenstein's territory is mountainous.[9] and the highest point of Liechtenstein is the Vordere Grauspitz (Vordergrauspitz) mountain with an altitude of 2599m above sea level.[9][10]
The Falknishorn, at 2452 meters above sea level, is the 5th highest mountain in Liechtenstein and represents the southernmost point of the country. The area known as the Liechtenstein-Graubünden-Vorarlberg border triangle is around the Naafkopf mountain that reaches 2570m above sea level.[9][10]
Liechtenstein lies entirely within the Rhaetikon and is thus allotted either to the Eastern Alps (two-part division of the Alps) or to the Central Alps (three-part division of the Alps) depending on how its geology classified.[10][9]
The Julian Alps cross the Italian border from Frulia into Slovenia's Municipality of Bovec. The highest mountain is Mt. Triglav 2,864 m (9,396 ft).[14]
The High Tauern mountain range in which Mt Grossglockner, 3,797 m (12,457.35 ft) lies, separates Carentania from the state of Salzburg in the northwest. To the northeast and to the east beyond the Pack Saddle mountain pass is the state of Styria.
Austrian and Slovenian Carinthia has a very diverse landscape, with predominance of hilly and mountainous terrain of Pleistocene oragins and later scuptedby by former glaciers. Over 2/3s of Slovenian Carinthia is covered by forest (lagly beech, fir, and spruce) and the amount of forested land is still increasing.[15]Mount Peca or Mount Raduha is in the eastern part of Kamnik–Savinja Alps of northern Slovenia.[15]
The ranges are subdivided by several deeply indented river valleys, mostly running east–west, including the Inn, Salzach, Enns, Adige, Drava, and Mur valleys. According to the traditional Alpine Club classification of the Eastern Alps (AVE) widely used by Austrian and German mountaineers, these mountain chains comprise several dozen smaller mountain groups, each assigned to four larger regions:
During the Würm glaciation, the Eastern Alps were drier than the Western Alps, with the contiguous ice shield ending in the region of the Niedere Tauern in Austria. This allowed many species to survive the ice age in the Eastern Alps where they could not survive elsewhere. For that reason, many species of plants are endemic to the Eastern Alps.
Ancient history
The first signs of humans living in the area of present-day Liechtenstein can be dated back to the Middle Paleolithic era.[22]Neolithic farming settlements appeared in the valleys around 5300 BCE.
A Bronze Age settlement at the site goes back as far as the Pfyn culture[23] (3900–3500 BCE),[24] making Chur one of the oldest settlements in Switzerland. In ancient times, the area of what is today Ticino was settled by the Lepontii, a Celtic tribe. Later, probably around the reign of Augustus, it became part of the Roman Empire.
Rome conquered the area of the future Municipality of Schellenberg in 15BCE.
Classical antiquity
Romansh during the early Middle Ages
lost to German and Lombard, 700–1100
Romansh-speaking area, c. 1100
Vrin, is the Swiss municipality with 95.6% of people naming Romansh as their language of best command in 2000.
Most of the lands of the region were once part of a Roman province called Raetia, which was established in 15 BCE. The current capital of Graubünden, Chur, was known as Curia in Roman times. The area was later part of the diocese of Chur. A Roman road crossed Liechtenstein from south to north, traversing the Alps by the Splügen Pass and following the right bank of the Rhine at the edge of the floodplain, for long uninhabited because of periodic flooding. Some Roman villas have been excavated in Schaanwald and Nendeln. Nearly 2,000 years later, some of the population of Graubünden[26] still speak Romansh[26] which has descended from Vulgar Latin.[26]
By 259, Alamanni tribes had overrun the Limes and caused widespread devastation of Roman cities and settlements in the Crisis of the Third Century. The Roman Empire succeeded in re-establishing the Rhine as the border, but it was now a frontier province. The late Roman influx from the north by the Alemanni also influenced the makeup of the Principality of Liechtenstein and is also evidenced by the remains of a Roman fort at Schaan. Roman villas have been excavated in Schaanwald[27] and Nendeln.[28]
The area that Innsbruck is located in was probably inhabited in the early Stone Age. Several surviving pre-Roman place names exist in and about the city.
In the 4th century Chur also became the seat of the first Christian bishopric north to the Alps. Despite a legend assigning its foundation to a legendary British king, St Lucius, the first known bishop is one Asinio[29] in AD 451.
The Alemanni or Alamanni,[30][31] were a confederation of Germanic tribes[32] on the Upper Rhine River. Eastern Switzerland, Vorarlberg and Liechtenstein was under the Alemanni and [33] 73% of Liechtenstein's current population still speak the native Alemannicdialect of German at home as of 2022.[34]
After the fall of the Ostrogothic Kingdom in 553, the Germanic tribe of the Lombards invaded Italy via the Tyrol and founded the Lombard Kingdom of Italy, which no longer included all of Tyrol, but only its southern part. The northern part of Tyrol came under the influence of the Bavarii, while the west was probably part of Alamannia.
Most of Tyrol came under the control of the Duchy of Bavaria (created c. 555) while the rest remained under the Lombards.
By the 590s AD, today's East Tyrol and Carinthia had come to be referred to in historical sources as Provincia Sclaborum (the Country of Slavs).[35][36] The territory settled by Slavs, however, was also inhabited by remnants of the indigenous Romanised Celtic and Pannonian population, who preserved the Christian faith and helped convert the Slavs of Carantania.
From 623 to 658 Slavic peoples between the upper Elbe River and the Karawanks mountain range.[37] They united under the leadership of King Samo (Kralj Samo).[37] Carantania, (AKA: Carentania, Slovene: Karantanija, German: Karantanien, in Old Slavic *Korǫtanъ), was a former Alpine Slavic (Alpska Slovanščina)\proto-Slovenian principality[37] that emerged from Samo's Empire in the second half of the 7th century, in the territory of present-day southern Austria and north-eastern Slovenia.
The city of Chur suffered several invasions: by the Magyars in 925–926, when the cathedral was destroyed, and by the Saracens (940 and 954), but afterwards it flourished thanks to its location, where the roads from several major Alpine transit routes come together and continue down the Rhine River. In 926 more Magyar raiders attacked the abbey and the nearby town of St Gallen.
The Lordship of Schellenberg was constituted in the 9th century by Charlemagne.[39][40]
By about 1100 Ticino was the centre of struggle between the free communes of Milan and Como.
The upper Rhine River had been visited by traders since Roman times, but acquired greater importance under the Ottonian dynasty of the Holy Roman Empire. Emperor Otto I appointed his vassal Hartpert as bishop of Chur in 958 and awarded the bishopric numerous privileges. In 1170 the bishop became a prince-bishop and kept total control over the road between Chur and Chiavenna.
The first written evidence of a settlement at Innsbruck dates back to 1180 and the town named Oeni Pontum or Oeni Pons which is Latin for bridge (pons) over the Inn River (Flumen Oenus). It was built there some time earlier than its first recorded account, possibly even around Roman Veldidena in the 4th century, due to the important crossing point over the Inn River.[citation needed] The Counts of Andechs first acquired the town in 1180 and then the town passed into the hands of the Counts of Tyrol in 1248[41]
From upper Valais, the Walser began to spread south, west and east between the 12th and 13th centuries, in the so-called Walser migrations (Walserwanderungen). Nearly 1,500 years later the people of Triesenberg in Liechtenstein still speak a dialect of German that was influence of Walser migrants from the early in the 14th century.[42]
In the 13th century Chur had some 1,300 inhabitants and was surrounded by a line of walls. In 1367 the foundation of the Three Leagues in the area was a first step towards Chur's autonomy: a burgmeister (mayor) is first mentioned in 1413, and the bishop's residence was attacked by the inhabitants. Chur was the chief town of the Gotteshausbund or Chadé (League of the House of God), and one of the regular meeting places of the assemblies of the Leagues. As the power of the bishops, now increasingly under the influence of the nearby HabsburgCounty of Tyrol, decreased, in 1464 the citizens wrote a constitution which was adopted as the rule for the peoples of the local guilds and political positions.
In 1367 the League of God's House (Cadi, Gottes Haus, Ca' di Dio) was founded to resist the rising power of the Bishop of Chur. This was followed by the establishment of the Grey League (Grauer Bund), sometimes called Oberbund, in 1395 in the Upper Rhine valley.
In the 14th century it was acquired by the Visconti, Dukes of Milan. In the 15th century the Swiss Confederates conquered the valleys south of the Alps in three separate conquests.
The Lordship of Schellenberg was purchased by the Counts of Vaduz in 1437.[40] Liechtenstein's borders have remained unchanged since 1434, when the Rhine was established as the border between the Holy Roman Empire and the newly formed Swiss cantons.[38]
The County of Vaduz (German: Grafschaft Vaduz) was a historic state of the Holy Roman Empire[43] and Lordship of Schellenberg[39]
become the Principality of Liechtenstein in 1719.[44][40][39]
19th century
When Graubünden became a Swiss canton in 1803, Chur was chosen as its capital. The lands of the Bishopric of Trent and Bishopric of Brixen were secularised and incorporated into the County of Tyrol.
Mt. Piz Bernina (4,049 m) was given its name in 1850 by Johann Coaz, who also made the first ascent.[45]
The completion of the final portion of the FO railway occurred in 1926. It thus opened up the Cantons of Valais and Graubünden to further tourist development. This led to the introduction of Kurswagen (through coaches) between Brig and Chur, and between Brig and St. Moritz.[46]
Between 1943 and April 1945, Axis Forces held Innsbruck, which experienced 22 air raids by the Allied Forces and suffered heavy damage during World War 2.[48][49] Switzerland and Lichtenstein remained neutral in the war.
Only about 30% of Graubünden is commonly regarded as productive land, of which forests cover about a fifth of the total area.[53] St. Moritz has a subarctic climate (Köppen: Dfc). The canton is entirely mountainous, comprising the highlands of the Rhine and Inn valleys.[53] In its southeastern part lies the only official Swiss National Park. In its northern part the mountains were formed as part of the thrust fault that was declared a geologic UNESCOWorld Heritage Site, under the name Swiss Tectonic Arena Sardona, in 2008. Another Biosphere Reserve is the Biosfera Val Müstair adjacent to the Swiss National Park whereas Ela Nature Park is one of the regionally supported parks.
Agriculture St. Gallen
St. Gallen's agriculture is predominantly of dairy farming and cattle breeding in the mountainous areas, with fruit and wine production are important, but there is also mixed farming in the plains. St. Gallen has a humid continental climate (Dfb).
Industry in Carinthia
Austrian Carinthia has a humid continental climate (Köppen) and Solvinian Carinthia has an alpine climate, and partially a transitional continental climate with a mjor important element is temperature inversion.
Slovene Carinthia boasts a major Slovine steel mill, major hidro-electric dam (60 megawatts), a former lead smelter and some lead and zinc mines.[15]AustrianCarinthia's main industries are tourism, electronics, engineering, forestry, and agriculture.
The completion of the final portion of the FO railway occurred in 1926. It thus opened up the Cantons of Valais and Graubünden to further tourist development. This led to the introduction of Kurswagen (through coaches) between Brig and Chur, and between Brig and St. Moritz.[46]
The Austrian states of Tirol and Vorarlberg are also connected by a pass road called the Silvretta Hochalpenstraße (at a height of 2032m).[citation needed]
^ abcdefDer westliche Rätikon wird nur aus orographisch-systematischen Gründen zu den zentralen Ostalpen gerechnet, weil er südlich der Ill–Arlberg-Furche liegt.
^ abcdKeber, Štefan (2008). "Slovenska Koroška – Zgodovinsko-geografski oris". Kronika (in Slovenian, English, and German). 56 (2). Zveza zgodovinskih društev za Slovenijo, sekcija za krajevno zgodovino [Section for the History of Places, Union of Historical Societies of Slovenia]. ISSN0023-4923.
^ abNovak, Vilko. 2006. Slovar stare knjižne prekmurščine. Ljubljana: ZRC SAZU, pp. 262, 269.
^Schibler, J. 2006. The economy and environment of the 4th and 3rd millennia BC in the northern Alpine foreland based on studies of animal bones. Environmental Archaeology 11(1): 49–65
^Smith, J.T. (February 2011). Roman villas : A study in social structure. London: Routledge. p. 283. ISBN9780415620116.
^Baedeker, Karl (1891). The eastern Alps : including the Bavarian highlands, the Tyrol, Salzkammergut, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, and Istria : handbook for travellers. London: Dulau. p. 265.
^The spelling with "e" is used in Encyc. Brit. 9th. ed., (c. 1880), Everyman's Encyc. 1967, Everyman's Smaller Classical Dictionary, 1910. The current edition of Britannica spells with "e", as does Columbia and Edward Gibbon, Vol. 3, Chapter XXXVIII. The Latinized spelling with a is current in older literature (so in the 1911 Britannica), but remains in use e.g. in Wood (2003), Drinkwater (2007).
^The Alemanni were alternatively known as Suebi from about the fifth century, and that name became prevalent in the high medieval period, eponymous of the Duchy of Swabia. The name is taken from that of the Suebi mentioned by Julius Caesar, and although these older Suebi did likely contribute to the ethnogenesis of the Alemanni, there is no direct connection to the contemporary Kingdom of the Suebi in Galicia.
^Collomb, Robin, Bernina Alps, Goring: West Col Productions, 1988, p. 55.
^ abMoser, Beat; Börret, Ralph; Küstner, Thomas (2005). Glacier Express: Von St. Moritz nach Zermatt. Fürstenfeldbruck, Germany: Eisenbahn-Journal (Verlagsgruppe Bahn GmbH). ISBN3-89610-057-2., page 102. (in German)
