Sonnenberg (Vinschgau)

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As Sonnenberg ( Italian Monte Sole or Monte Mezzodi ), the north side of the valley flank and thus southern exposure Etschtal in Vinschgau in South Tyrol , respectively.

View of the Laaser Sonnenberg with the Tröghöfe; The steppe belt directly above the valley floor and afforestation areas are clearly visible

geography

location

The Sonnenberg is part of the Ötztal Alps and stretches for almost 50 kilometers from Mals in the west to Töll at the east end of the Vinschgau . More precise location information is usually given in connection with the next larger town in the valley floor, if a more common name, such as the name of a settlement, is not readily available for a slope area. The steep valley slopes of the Sonnenberg merge into slightly flatter low-mountain terraces at a height of 1200  m . Geologically, this terrain level shows the course of the “Vinschgauer Scherzone” as a continuation of the “Schliniglinie”.

The counterpart of the Sonnenberg on the south-facing and thus north-facing valley flank is the Nördersberg .

Settlements

St. Martin im Kofel am Latscher Sonnenberg seen from the valley floor

With the exception of a small pile village , the village of Tana , at 1,400  m above Laas , there are the mittelgebirgigen terraced slopes of the Sonnenberg only scattered settlements, some tiny hamlets and remote farmsteads. These include Muntetschinig ( 1306  m ), Lechtl and Gemassen above Tartsch , the Gschneirhöfe on the Schludernser Berg ( 1306  m ), the courtyards around St. Peter near Tanas up to 1745  m , the Tröghöfe above the Laaser Leiten, the Rimpfhöfe near Allitz , the Schlanderser Sonnenberg from an altitude of 1405  m , Schlandersberg and Tappein ( 1397  m ), St. Martin im Kofel above Latsch at 1736  m , Trumsberg above Kastelbell at 1250  m , the Juval farms, the Naturnser Sonnenberg on the southern slope of the Texel Group , and finally the courtyards of the Partschinser Sonnenberg.

The valleys

The Sonnenberg is only interrupted by four larger valleys along its entire length. These are the Matscher valley branching off at Schluderns , the Schlandraun valley near Schlanders, the Schnalstal valley , which flows in near Naturns, and finally the target valley near Partschins.

The mountains

The mountain peaks towering over the Sonnenberg all belong to the Ötztal Alps , divided into three subgroups. To the west of the Matscher valley, the peaks are assigned to the Planeiler mountains , between Matscher and Schnalstal to the Saldur ridge and east of the Schnalstal to the Texel group .

The highest elevations of the Sonnenberg, visible from the valley, are flattened, rounded peaks in the western part, which have scarcely offset ridge reliefs: the Spitzige Lun near Mals ( 2324  m ), the Köpflplatte ( 2410  m ) above Spondinig , which leads a mountain ridge, in the course of which the Schwarze Knott ( 2811  m ), the Hohe Kreuzjoch ( 2992  m ), the Madatschknott ( 3081  m ), the Weisseck ( 2376  m ) and the Rauscheck ( 2286  m ) surround the indentation above Eyrs . The Dorferberg ( 1809  m ) east of Tanas is the foothills of this ridge towards Allitz .
The Nocken ( 2382  m ) and the Kortscher Jöchl ( 2648  m ) on the west side of the Schlandraun valley are also flattened, inconspicuous mountains. East of the Schlandraun valley , the ridge course is more striking: the Zerminiger ( 3109  m ), whose foothills visible from the valley are 3059  m high, the Vermoispitze ( 2929  m ), the Grubenspitze ( 2899  m ), the Trumser Spitze ( 2912  m ) and the Tscharser Wetterkreuz ( 2552  m ) form a poorly structured mountain range that ends at Juval Castle as the western boundary of the Schnalstal valley.
East of the Schnalstal is the Texel group, where the Kirchbachspitze ( 3,053  m ) forms the highest elevation visible from the valley. It is Naturno's local mountain and hides the even higher mountain peaks to the north. A little to the east, the Tschigat ( 2998  m ) dominates the end of the Vinschgau valley above the Töll. The section of the Sonnenberg on the flanks of the Texel Group is largely protected in the Texel Group Nature Park .

history

Some parts of the Sonnenberg show traces of pre-Roman settlement. This became clear during archaeological excavations on the Tartscher Bichl , on the Ganglegg above Schluderns and on St. Georg above Kortsch . Excavations were also carried out at Annenberg Castle and Juval Castle. A chance find in 1970 near the hamlet of Talatsch on the Schlanderser Sonnenberg unearthed a bronze place: two sickles, two chisels, a perforated hatchet, a rib ax and eight fragments of rag axes , dating from the 7th or 8th century BC. Can be assigned. Other stray finds confirm that people stayed on the Sonnenberg in those times. The favorable climatic conditions will undoubtedly have played a role in the choice of location.

Stabener Waal

The extensive clearing for the fields of the farms, which still characterize the landscape today, was created in the high Middle Ages , which was favorable for agriculture . Farms were occasionally set up in places where the water supply was precarious from the start or depended on the pouring of unreliable springs. Without artificial irrigation, a profitable management of a farm on these dry slopes is only possible in periods with a fortuitously favorable rainfall constellation. Farms that could not join a Waalbaupproject or did not have a self-sufficient irrigation system had to be abandoned sooner or later. There are numerous such farm ruins in the Silandro area.

The slopes of the Sonnenberg, which were not irrigated, have always been preferred pastures for thousands of goats and sheep. While the larch stands survived this onslaught in the higher zones, a 500 to 700 m wide strip of vegetation in the lower area was completely bare. The consequences were erosion , leaching of the barren soil and mudslides that threatened the villages in the valley floor. As early as the 18th century, the authorities began to take countermeasures and limit grazing. Some well-known personalities of their time, such as the doctor Heinrich Vögele from Schlanders and the doctor Heinrich Flora from Mals , endeavored to initiate systematic reforestation as the first from 1880. Even then, the choice fell on the black pine , which was then used as a pioneer plant in the interwar period and very heavily in the years 1951 to 1965. The reforestation program at the time created around 800  hectares of black pine forests on the Sonnenberg. Robinia was used in particularly unfavorable locations . The desired effect, namely to protect settlements and cultural grounds from the periodic floods, could thus be achieved. Individual slope areas were deliberately left out in order to preserve them as dry grassland and steppe habitats .

The last medium-term reforestation project was the “Special Reforestation Vinschgau” program, with which 385 individual projects were implemented in the Vinschgau in the years 1986 to 2005. In the black pine stocks of the Sonnenberg , around 4,000 deciduous tree biocells were built according to concepts that had been developed with the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna . Otherwise reforestation was no longer carried out in these areas.

The claim that the forests were already destroyed by the Romans and then in the Middle Ages for the construction of Venice has been maintained until recently. However, this is doubted by experts, since the Adige was not floatable . You see the cause of the steppe strip in slash and burn and excessive grazing .

flora

At the foot of the slope

Bush forests on the Naturnser Sonnenberg

In the area of ​​the Sonnenberg near the valley, wine flourishes as far as the Silandro region . Where it was possible to reach the slopes with whales, dry stone terraces were created on steep sections of the slope . In some places the vines on these terraces had to give way to the apple trees after the First World War because they achieved higher yields. In the vicinity of the villages, beautiful chestnut groves have been preserved as far as Kortsch . As far as Kastelbell , occasionally further west, you will find downy oak bush forests interspersed with other deciduous plants coming from the east at the foot of the Sonnenberg :

The steppe belt

The steppe belt on the Laaser Sonnenberg
The Tscharser Sonnenberg

The dry climate of this inner-alpine transverse valley, the orientation of the slopes of the Sonnenberg directly to the south and the resulting high solar radiation have produced a unique vegetation on a 500 to 700 m wide strip of terrain of the Sonnenberg that does not occur in this way in comparable alpine transverse valleys further south . The steppe vegetation and the dry grasslands of the Vinschgau are well known to biologists. Temperature differences on these barren areas of up to 50 ° C between day and night and ground temperatures of up to 65 ° are not uncommon. It is so hot that efflorescence from Epsom salts can be observed in many places . These arise from the capillary rise of pore water and its evaporation on the soil surface. The attentive observer will discover a variety of vegetation in this strip of vegetation, furrowed by erosion channels, ranging from the most frugal vegetation on the driest rocky outcrops to the lush green vegetation just around the corner in a more humid and microclimatically favored slope niche.

Large parts of this steppe belt were afforested with black pines and, to a lesser extent, with robinia. Where the dry grassland and steppe landscape was left, the vegetation of the Sonnenberg consists primarily of xerophilic plants, i.e. those that grow through leaf reduction, through the formation of thorns , onion-like tubers, thick rhizomes, fur felt (reflects the light) and leathery ones Protect leaves (succulents, e.g. houseleek, sedums) from drying out:

Shrub-like representatives of this genus are:

The layman does not see the dry grassland landscape that there can be around 120 plant species, while there are hardly 20 among the black pine. The diversity of plants also has an impact on the fauna. In South Tyrol and especially in Vinschgau, the variants of the Walliser Schwingels ( Festuca valesiaca ) have achieved great diversity. Typical grasses in the dry grass areas are:

Other dry grass types, including very rare ones, are:

Problems with the black pine

The black pine was chosen for afforestation because it is well adapted to very dry and stony soils. It was also available in sufficient quantities for afforestation activities. The forestry experts are no longer happy with this choice for the following reasons:

  • Wherever the black pine has been used, it has become so prevalent that the biodiversity has suffered noticeably, both in terms of flora and fauna. Rare types of vegetation and plant communities have been lost on these areas.
  • The game lacks the base for grazing and the scarce artificial and natural rejuvenation that occurs bites away, so that hardwoods no longer appear.
  • Pest infestation by the processionary moth; The caterpillar populations populate the trees in commonly woven, white web nests (around 75,000 to 100,000 nests on the slope) and eat the pine needles in winter and spring before they pupate in the ground. The hairs of the caterpillars cause allergic reactions on human skin. Twice a year, helicopter sprays have been flown for some time to spread the Bacillus thuringiensis , which is supposed to keep the pest down biologically.
  • The fallen needles of the black pine form a litter that is difficult to break down and acidifies the soil. An annual rejuvenation can hardly occur.
  • The resin-rich needle litter, which can hardly be rotted, represents a very dry and therefore easily flammable surface.

Today attempts are being made to mix deciduous trees, especially downy oaks and manna ash , into "felled" clearings. How these biocells will behave in the long term is uncertain.

The settlement belt

The settlement terrace of Tanas

The meadows and fields of the scattered settlements and individual farms border the steppe belt, which differ in color from the dark black pine stands and the gray of the steppe belt because they are artificially irrigated. In the past, the water was brought to the meadows by kilometer-long support whales , today it is watered through pipes.

The alpine vegetation level

View of the Goldrainer Sonnenberg and the gray wall towering behind it

The clearing, which dates back to the High Middle Ages, is transformed into larch forests, in which individual small alps hide from 1700  m . Swiss stone pines blend in at an altitude of 2000  m . Above the tree line, the landscape turns into tundra-like high pastures, rocky heaps and furrowed high mountain slopes.

fauna

The biodiversity of the fauna has suffered significantly where it has been artificially intervened. Typical animal species are the emerald and wall lizard, aesculapian snake, aspic viper, zippammer, ortolan, red-backed shrike, scops owl and stone chicken. Many species of butterflies in particular have their settlement focus in the dry grass communities.

traffic

All settlements and individual farms on the Sonnenberg now have a road connection.

  • Between Mals and Schluderns , it is the feeder into the Matscher Valley that branches off at Tartsch .
  • The hamlets and individual farms of the Sonnenberg between Schluderns and Schlanders can be reached via a kind of panoramic road that branches off in Schluderns, leads along the Schludernser Berg to the Gschneir farms and the farms of St. Peter, passes above the village of Tanas to the Trög farms and flows into Allitz on the Gadria alluvial cone.
  • The courtyards of the Schlanderser Sonnenberg are accessed from a road that branches off at Kortsch , leads past the Aegidius church and winds its way up the slope to the widely scattered courtyards.
  • Tappein and Schlandersberg can be reached by a feeder from Vetzan , which is only available to residents.
  • In order to St. Martin above Latsch to enter the modern should cableway St. Martin are elected, although a road from Kastelbell of this settlement and the courts of Trumsberg opens.
  • For Juval a shuttle service from the valley floor at the mouth of the Val Senales offered from
  • If possible, the Sonnenberg cable car should also be chosen for the Naturnser Sonnenberg and not the winding road; the modern cable car to Unterstell starts from the Kompatsch district in Naturns .
  • The Texelbahn has been in operation since April 25, 2009. It is a cable car (25 people) with a transport capacity of 280 people per hour and connects the Giggelberg, located on the Partschinser Sonnenberg, with the valley station between Partschins and Rabland.

literature

  • Lorenzo Dal Rì, Umberto Tecchiati, Paola Bassetti Carlini: Archeology and art history in Kastelbell-Tschars and the surrounding area. On the prehistory and early history of the middle and lower Vinschgau . South Tyrolean regional administration, regional monument office. Published by the Raiffeisenkasse Tschars. Tschars 1995 OCLC 551946646 .
  • Hanspeter Staffler : The potentially natural vegetation of the Vinschgau Sun Mountain: Conversion of the Vinschgau Black Pine Forests into near-natural stands . Dissertation, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna 2009 ( PDF file ).
  • K. Katzensteiner, H. Hager, G. Karrer, H. Staffler: Dry forest soils on the Vinschgauer Sonnenberg (South Tyrol / Italy). In: Gredleriana. Volume 3, 2003, pp. 377-414.
  • Hans Wielander : The Vinschgauer Sonnenberg . Tappeiner, Lana 2012, ISBN 978-88-7073-641-0 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Josef Rampold : Vinschgau. Athesia Publishing House, 1974, p. 88
  2. ↑ The black pine. In: Der Vinschger, edition 10/04. May 20, 2004, accessed on December 17, 2012 ( Flora, H., 1879: Wiederaufforstung im Vintschgau. In: Mitteilungen des Deutschen und Österreichischen Alpenverein. Edited by Th. Trautwein. Volume V. Verlag des Verein. Munich. Plank , J., 1995: Chronicle of torrent damage in Austria up to 1891 and comprehensive documentation based on two examples (Enterbach / Inzing, Niedernsiller Mühlbach). Diploma thesis at the Institute for Torrent and Avalanche Protection. University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna. Staffler, R ., 1927: The court names in the district court of Schlanders (Vinschgau). Universitätsverlag Wagner, page 105. Schlernschriften 13. Innsbruck ).
  3. ↑ Activity report of the state administration, Dept. 32, 2005. (DOC, 9.3 MB) (No longer available online.) 2005, formerly in the original ; accessed on December 17, 2012 (German / Italian).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.provincia.bz.it  
  4. ↑ "Afforestation Vinschgau" lives on, but no longer in the previous extent. In: Der Vinschger, edition 21/05. November 4, 2005, accessed December 17, 2012 .
  5. ↑ Sub-Pannonian steppe dry grass habitat codes: 6240 ( Memento from March 25, 2013 in the Internet Archive )

Coordinates: 46 ° 39 '  N , 10 ° 46'  E