South Tyrol

SOUTH TYROL. - 1. GEOGRAPHY. - Name given (by E. Tolomei in 1906) to the basin of the river upstream of the Salorno gorge, which, in its present-day administrative acceptation, also includes a small strip of the Drava basin (S. Candido and Sesto), that is to say, in substance, the region called by the Germans Deutsch-Südtirol.

The territory, whose northern boundary coincides with the Italian-Austrian frontier, is also well defined to the south by high mountain barriers (Ortler-Cevedale, Sella, Sasso Lungo, Catinaccio, Lateran, etc.) which isolate it from the neighbouring Trentino region, with which, however, communications remain easy. It is a mountain region, for more than 4/5 above 1000 m. (and for 2/5 above 2000), in which, however, the harsh landscape of the high mountain fringes alternates with the more open one of the broad valley floors modelled by Quaternary glaciers; areas often well sheltered from the north (Merano) and with not too abundant rainfall. As throughout the Alpine arc, in the A. A. the major valleys constitute distinct and well-individualized units, as a rule with proper names (Val Venosta, Pusteria, Val Gardena, Val Badia, etc.).

The territory in its lower parts is cultivated (cereals, chiefly rye, and potatoes; in the best sunlit hollows the vineyard and the orchard thrive; on the whole barely 6% of the total area); in the rest it is sparsely populated, but rich in pastures (37.5% of the total) and with extensive wooded areas (39%). Industries have recently received a notable impulse there, above all through the development of hydroelectric plants (on the Isarco is the most powerful plant in Italy); tourism is also notable, centring on holiday and sports resorts among the most frequented in our country, and it benefits from excellent hotel facilities. The A. A. has commercial importance for its lines of communication, which, following the three major valleys (upper Adige valley, or Venosta; Isarco valley; Rienza valley, or Pusteria), lead, through the three great Alpine passes corresponding to them (Resia, Brenner, and Dobbiaco), to the transalpine countries. Along these routes are the major urban centres: Bolzano (75 thousand inhabitants), at the confluence of the Adige with the Isarco, which tends to become an important industrial centre; Merano (26 thousand inhabitants), an international climatic resort, and Bressanone (7 thousand inhabitants), centre of the bishopric of the same name.

The A. A., today included in the region called Trentino-A. A., corresponds to the province of Bolzano, established in 1927. The German element prevails there over the Italian, whose percentage has nevertheless grown since the detachment from Austria (8.7% in 1869; 11% in 1921; about 20%, probably, today). During the recent war the transfer (Rückwanderung) to Germany of those opting for German citizenship had been envisaged; but on 1 Dec. 1942, when the exodus was supposed to have ended, only 72,749 had left the country. The Constituent Assembly of the Republic approved on 29 January 1948 the Special Statute for Venezia Tridentina, which protects the German element (a minority in the region as a whole), by recognizing a particular provincial autonomy within the framework of the region.

The area of the province is 7085 sq km.; its population has passed from 239,940 inhabitants in 1910 to 277,720 in 1936 (289 thousand as of 31 Dec. 1947; density 41 per sq km.)

The territory of the A. A. is under the ecclesiastical administration of three dioceses: Trento, which has the greater part of it. Bressanone (eastern part and Ampezzano) and Coira (Val Monasterio).

Giuseppe Caraci

2. ART

Since the Middle Ages, Alto Adige art has developed as an integral part of German art, naturally undergoing intense influences from Italian art. The historical-artistic importance of the region is based on the continuity of the use of fresco, especially in the Romanesque and Gothic periods; and it is further documented by the typical carved altars, composed of paintings and sculptures, which with Pacher (v.) attained their highest expression in all of northern art; finally the flourishing of secular (chivalric) painting at the beginning of the 15th century completes the complex of fundamental motifs of the originality of Upper Adige art. No less important, lastly, is the environmental character, the centuries-old formation of the country accustomed to a modest but native nobility, to a wealthy bourgeoisie and to peasants with a long tradition of their own, in mutual equilibrium. But all this, while it favored artistic development, could not give rise to a "great architecture" of more than local importance; the sole exception: the bishopric of Bressanone, which, remaining as a kind of small local court until the 18th century under the prince-bishops, constitutes, more than Bolzano, the artistic center of the region, in almost continuous cultural contact with Salzburg.

Still very simple as architecture, but important for their frescoes, are the two pre-Romanesque churches of the Val Venosta: S. Procolo at Naturno, with frescoes of the 9th century, and S. Benedetto at Malles. The Romanesque monuments are very numerous, of which typical examples are the abbey of Montemaria near Burgusio in the Val Venosta, with frescoes of the 12th century, and the chapel of Castel d'Appiano in the Valle d'Adige with sacred paintings (12th century) in the interior and a Demonic Hunt of Theodoric on the exterior. Slightly later are the Byzantine-style frescoes of Grissiano near Malles and of Lana, of the same artistic current as the Val di Non (Romeno, Sanzeno); interesting are the representations of monsters — northern transformations of ancient motifs — beneath the Christ with the Apostles in S. Jacopo at Termeno (mid-13th century). At Bressanone there existed a whole complex of Romanesque architecture: it is partly transformed (the Cathedral) and partly still preserves its original frescoes: for example those of the baptistery, of the cloister and of the church of Nostra Signora, linked to Salzburg painting (Nonnberg). Scarcer are the remains of Romanesque sculpture. Works in stone are rare (portal of the abbey of S. Candido, 13th century); more frequent are those in wood, since this material was preferred from then on (crucifixes and sacred images of S. Candido and of Castel Tiralli). Illumination also flourished: the Evangelary of S. Candido (University Library of Innsbruck) is of the 9th century; numerous are the codices of the 12th, 13th and following centuries, especially in the convents of Bressanone and Bolzano.

Of the 12th and 13th centuries are also the first castles, today for the most part transformed or in ruins: Greifenstein, Stein am Ritten, the Romanesque chapels of the castles of Tiralli, Appiano Alto, Roncolo, Montechiaro of Romanesque origin with Lombard elements; furthermore the churches of Tubre (Val Monasterio), S. Pietro near Merano, the cloister of Novacella; noteworthy is S. Giorgio at Scena, with a central plan.

Romanesque art begins to yield to Gothic art only in the first half of the 14th century. In painting, therefore, Western and Northern elements prevail, from which the direct Italian influences stand out clearly in the second half of the century. Examples of the first current: part of the frescoes in S. Giovanni and in the cloister of Bressanone, in Novacella, in the chapel of Castel Tiralli; sculptures of the parish church of Bolzano; goldsmith work in the treasury of the cathedral of Bressanone. Principal monument of the second (Italian-Giottesque) current: the paintings in the church of the Dominicans at Bolzano (executed by Italians), and, under their influence, those in the churches of S. Vigilio and S. Giovanni in Villa at Bolzano, of S. Cipriano at Sarentino, at Campiglio, at Terlano and at Nova Ponente. Numerous Gothic churches then arose, beginning with the most important, the parish church of Bolzano (finished in the 16th century): the churches of the Franciscans and of the Dominicans at Bolzano, the parish churches of Merano, Terlano, Termeno,

S. Sigismondo, Falzès, S. Valentino, S. Lorenzo, Ora, Lana, Silandro, Glorenza, Chiusa, Vipiteno, Brunico, Tubre, etc. Gothic forms were used until the 16th century. At the end of the 16th century and in the 17th century Renaissance forms begin to appear, then Baroque ones.

Singular are the monuments of chivalric painting of Montechiaro (today in the museum of Innsbruck) and of Castel Roncolo, as well as the frescoes of the late 14th and early 15th centuries in the churches of Presule, Riffiano, Termeno, Terlano (Hans Stockinger, 1407), Nova Ponente, Scena, Novacella (Joh. v. Bruneck) and Bressanone (cloister).

Among the sculptures should be mentioned those in the churches of S. Sigismondo in Pusteria (altar of about 1430), of Merano, of Terlano. Manifold at that time are also the relations with the Trentino, with Verona, and with other places where this style flourished (Stefano da Verona painted in the Val di Non; the master of the paintings of the Torre Aquila of Trento worked, in 1414, in the cathedral of Merano). Panel painting, until then of secondary importance, now begins to develop intensely, receiving, through German painting, the reflections of the new Flemish realism. Vast was the influence of Multscher's activity at Vipiteno in 1456-58. As native masters who prepare the environment on which Michael Pacher would base himself and who participate in the development described, there appear: the "Master of Villa Ottone or of Utta" (Uttenheimer Meister, Novacella), Jakob Sunter (Bressanone, 1472 etc.), Friedrich Pacher. Some of these predecessors of M. Pacher already foreshadow, beyond the German-Flemish component of their style, the Italian-Renaissance one, which then became decisive for the full unfolding of the genius of M. Pacher, who exercised a very great influence on all the art of the A. A., to the point of determining the most widespread type of altar.

After the appearance of Pacher, Upper Adige art no longer reaches such heights. Italian influences (especially Venetian) in the late 16th and 17th centuries on local artists such as Helfenrieder, Th. Polack, Kessler, M. Stölzl resolve into provincial manners; of the 18th century are the works of M. Günther (Vipiteno, Colle Isarco), of Troger (Bressanone, also active in Vienna), who founded a school: and while Hauzinger, M. Knoller and the Unterberger brothers establish an artistic link between Austria and Italy, the Glantschnig, the Pussieger, the Grassmair, J. M. Gündter are of local interest only. The link with southern Germany remains more alive at Bressanone (J. Perger, D. Molling); the same holds for the churches built or rebuilt in the 17th century and for sculpture.

Nevertheless, given the variety of the altars, the goldsmith work, the numerous small castles, and in short the dignity with which the old peasant houses blend with the landscape, a continuity between the Romanesque style and the art of the 18th century is evident; this forms a truly remarkable culture even if it did not always rise to European importance. - See Pl. LXXII.

Bernardo Degenhart