Sauris

Sauris (Zahre)
Country	Italy
region	Friuli Venezia Giulia
Coordinates	46 ° 28 '  N , 12 ° 43'  E Coordinates: 46 ° 27 '59 "  N , 12 ° 42' 31"  E
height	1212  m slm
surface	41 km²
Residents	394 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density	10 inhabitants / km²
Post Code	33020
prefix	0433
ISTAT number	030107
Popular name	Saurani
Website	Sauris municipality

Sauris (German: Zahre ) is a municipality and German-language island in the Carnic Alps , Northern Italy, Friuli-Venezia Giulia region with 394 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2019).

Municipal office in Sauris di Sotto

Location and dates

The neighboring communities are: Ampezzo (Eng. Petsch ), Forni di Sopra , Forni di Sotto , Ovaro , Prato Carnico and Vigo di Cadore ( BL ).

Sauris is one of the German-speaking islands in northeastern Italy and is located 1200 to 1400 m northwest of the Lumieischlucht (Italian: Val Lumiei) near Ampezzo, the main access road to Zahre. From the west of the Piave Valley / Cadore, Sauris / Zahre can be reached via the Sella Ciampigotto ( 1797  m ).

Sauris / Zahre consists of the two villages Sauris di Sotto / Unterzahre ( 1215  m slm ) and Sauris di Sopra / Oberzahre ( 1390  m slm ) with a total of 419 inhabitants (as of January 31, 2006). Both districts of the highest municipality in Friuli have been lovingly cared for and revitalized. The hamlet of Velt ( 1260  m slm ) lies between the two villages .

history

According to more recent findings in linguistics and regional history, Zahre was settled around the middle of the 13th century, as was the language island Sappada (German: Bladen) from the Hochpustertal and / or the neighboring Carinthian Lesach Valley .

Dam of the Lago di Sauris

Sauris di Sotto with the Church of St. Oswald

View over Oberzahre (Sauris di Sopra) to the valley

Parish Church of Saint Stephen in Oberzahre (Sauris di Sopra)

Architecture detail in Sauris di Sopra (Oberzahre)

There are almost no sources about the first settlement after a fire in the middle of the 18th century completely destroyed the allegedly documented parish archive.

In a document from the 12th century, the "Contratta de Sauris" (what is probably meant is today's Sauris di Sotto / Unterzahre), so that one can assume that Sauris existed as a place name before the German immigration . The German name Zahre was derived from the Romanic name.

For centuries, the inhabitants of their extremely isolated village led a meager life as mountain farmers and sometimes traveling traders. The most important entry into the valley, through which mainly pasture cattle products (butter, cheese, ham) were removed and products that could not be produced in the Alpine valley (salt for humans and animals, oil, vinegar, rice and wheat ...) were imported, was the Passo Pura to Ampezzo (about 8 hours on foot).

Between 1919 and 1934 a road from Ampezzo to the Sauris Valley, which had been planned in the 19th century, was built with a 105 m high bridge over the Lumiei river; this made access to the valley locations (Lateis, Sauris di Sotto (Unterzahre), Sauris di Sopra (Oberzahre) etc.) much easier. Between 1941 and 1948 the Sauris reservoir was built with a 136 m high dam, one of the highest in the world; the district of La Maina, which disappeared in the reservoir, was rebuilt above the lake. The western access to Sauris is still very difficult today and impossible for months in winter.

During the time of fascism in Italy (1922–1943), German traditions and the language were suppressed and forbidden not only in the public but even in the private sector: Mussolini and Italian nationalism practiced ruthlessly as in South Tyrol as in the German language islands Italianization policy .

The population was around 800 around 1880. In 1951 a maximum of 885 was reached. After that, as usual in northern Friuli, there was a continuous migration. Since the late 1990s, the population has stabilized at around 430. The local job offer is exceptionally good for the Montagna Friulana due to tourism and sausage production. These factors have resulted in the community's population gain of 1.7% over the past ten years, despite persistently unfavorable biodemographic factors.

Today there are close contacts to the other German enclaves, in particular to the closest Sappada (German Bladen, dialect-Tyrolean Plodn) and Timau (Tischelwang), but also to the Lusern ( province of Trient ) and Fersental (province of Trento) further west. , Seven municipalities with the main town Asiago ( Vicenza province ) and the thirteen municipalities ( Verona province ).

For several years now, the community has been expanding tourism, highlighting its very special German tradition in order to stop the emigration of young people in particular and to open up economic prospects for them locally. The community has achieved considerable success and is currently experiencing an upswing. New projects - also with support from the Province of Udine , the Friuli Region and the EU - are planned.

Sauris ham is known as a delicacy, a lightly smoked raw ham that is seasoned with mountain herbs.

language

The Zahrian dialect is characterized by Pustertal elements from the Innichen-Sillian-Villgraten-Kartitsch area. It is closely related to the idiom of the north-western linguistic island of Sappada (Bladen / Plodn), but differs from that idiom in some archaic linguistic elements and stronger Romance influences. Friulian is partly colloquial, Italian is almost exclusively the written language due to the lack of German school lessons.

The German-speaking islands of northeast Italy have no connection whatsoever with the Germanic people of the Cimbri , from whom an alleged origin as "Zimbern" is derived. This is an error of the early 19th century, when folklorists first became aware of the previously forgotten German-speaking islands of Italy. Their German dialect clearly shows their origin from the Alta Pusteria and should go back to the time of the Middle Ages, when the area with the county of Cadore belonged to the Hochstift Freising .

Around 70 percent of the population speak Zahrisch on a daily basis. However, the decline in traditional language use up to the 1980s is evident. At the beginning of the 20th century, active command of Zahri's mother tongue was still 100 percent and has steadily decreased for decades, only to stabilize again since around 1980.

The language is also used in public life. Above all, the church tries to preserve the old language. Prayers and chants have recently been rediscovered. Zahrisch is also being taught again today in kindergarten and school.

Place names

The German name Zahre and its Romanesque counterpart Sauris all go back to the Illyrian “Savira” (river). In addition to some Romanic names such as Lateis, the majority of the names, such as the mountain names Vesperkofel or Morgenleite, have German origins.

In 1975 Bruno Petris collected over 200 place and field names and analyzed them etymologically: In mountain agriculture there are terms such as “Elble” and “Rösleite”, field names such as “Stanbont” and “Hoacha Laite”, toponyms related to water such as “Pam Prünlan” ”(“ Pam ”means“ by the ”) and many other place names of German origin such as“ Pan der Kirch ”or“ Ame Khraitz ”. The surnames Schneider, Plozzer and especially Petris are particularly common.

Traditional songs and choral singing

Religious and secular songs as well as choir singing have a special tradition in Sauris / Zahre.

The oldest song in the Zahric language comes from the 15th century: "Bas bolt a hunter hunt" (A hunter wants to hunt). The "Canti del Giro della Stella" (songs of the star circle) from the period from the 15th to the 18th century are still sung at Christmas today: At Christmas there is a procession that follows a star attached to a stick. The solemn procession leads through the villages and hamlets, where fruits, eggs, cheese and bacon are collected. The “Lieder der Sternrunde” are sung and played in various musical and linguistic variants - in Zahric, Italian, Latin and Friulian. The “Coro Zahre” choir accompanies the “Giro della Stella” (star round) processions on December 26th in Sauris di Sotto / Unterzahre and on December 29th in Sauris di Sopra / Oberzahre. The traditions of the choir "Coro Zahre", which is led by the local priest, are cultivated and expanded. The "Coro Zahre" was founded in 1975 and sings the traditional songs, but it also integrates new pieces, which then get a very special Zahrian character.

The choir has meanwhile also gained nationwide renown and is considered a cultural ambassador for Sauris / Zahre.

Other songs still sung in Sauris / Zahre today are “Puer Meus”, nursery rhymes, love songs and soldier songs. The "Puer Meus" is sung in several versions in Zahra and Latin at Christmas and New Year's Day in the church of San Lorenzo in Sauris di Sopra / Oberzahre. The singing tradition is still very much alive today and serves communication and community life: since 1995, almost all women, especially from Sauris di Sopra / Oberzahre, have met every week and either rehearse new songs that they will then sing in church or just sing traditional songs for pleasure, but also Italian songs.

Folk culture

The townscape and rural environment are characterized by East Tyrolean and Friulian elements. The two churches in Sauris di Sotto / Unterzahre as well as in Sauris di Sopra / Oberzahre contain gothic winged altars from the Pustertal that are important in art history (Nikolaus von Bruneck 1524, Michael Parth 1551). The population is very musical and has produced some dialect poets.

The most famous handicrafts include the weaving and artistic processing of wood. Traditions such as the Zahr Carnival with its archaic figures, which is one of the oldest in the Alpine region and takes place on Carnival Saturday and Carnival Sunday, have been revived.

The construction of Sauris / Zahre, characterized by peculiar wooden barns and houses with typical balconies and wooden shutters, differs significantly from the Friulian region. The cultural association “Circolo culturale Saurano” and the municipality publish the local magazine “De Zahre reidet” (Zahre reports).

literature

• Aristide Baragiola : La casa villereccia delle colonie tedesche del gruppo carnico. Sappada, Sauris e Timau con raffronti delle zone contermini italiana et austriaca: Carnia, Cadore, Zoldano, Agordino, Carintia e Tirolo. Peregrinazione folcloriche. Tipografia Tettamanti, Chiasso 1915.
• Wilhelm Baum: German language islands in Friuli. Klagenfurt 1980.
• Roberta Costantini, Fulvio Dell'Agnese, Micol Duca, Antonella Favaro, Monica Nicoli, Alessio Pasian: Friuli-Venezia Giulia. I luoghi dell'arte, pp. 265-267; Bruno Fachin Editore, Trieste.
• Norman Denison, H. Grassegger: Zahrer Dictionary. Vocabolario Sauranor. Inst. For Language Science the Univ. Graz, Graz, 2007 ( Graz linguistic monographs 22).
• Karin Heller, Luis Thomas Prader and Christian Prezzi (eds.): Lebendige Sprachinseln. 2nd edition, Bozen 2006. Online to Sauris.
• Dialect lyric: Ferdinand Polentarutti, Liedlan in the Zahrer Sproche. 1890.
• Fulgenzio Schneider, Historical Memories.
• Harald Waitzbauer : Language island with overstimulation. In: Wiener Zeitung of December 22, 1989.

Web links

Commons : Sauris  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Information page of the municipality of Sauris (Italian)
• linguistic side (German)
• Information page of the Sprachinselverein (German)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Statistiche demografiche ISTAT. Monthly population statistics of the Istituto Nazionale di Statistica , as of December 31 of 2019.
2. ↑ Roland Löffler, Michael Beismann, Judith Walder, Ernst Steinicke: New Highlanders in traditional migration areas of the Alps. The example of the Friulian Alps. Revue de Géographie Alpine / Journal of Alpine Research 102/3, 2014, accessed on March 25, 2016 .