St. Nikolaus (Kaltern)

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St. Nikolaus (Italian San Nicolò, dialectal Niklaas) is a rural fraction of the municipality of Kaltern in South Tyrol .

location

, St. Nicholas in the direction of Bolzano seen

With an absolute height of 567 m, the center of St. Nikolaus is more than 100 m higher than the center of the municipality and approx. 1 km in a west-north-west direction from it. Erected on the alluvial cone of the Tamortal below the steep eastern slope of the Mendel , the district is sunny early in the day, but also early in the evening in the shadow of this mountain ridge.

History and church

The name of the area is end of the 13th century with Mondevinum and German with Mundevein attests, which means "mountain of wine" (not necessarily vineyard ). Since the church was consecrated to St. Nicholas , the surrounding area was also given this name over time. St. Nikolaus was the name of the place - at least in written use - in use before 1600. The church standing today is an extension from 1521 of an already existing church. In 1536 Bartlmä Dill Riemenschneider , son of the better-known Tilman Riemenschneider , painted coats of arms on the arches inside the church.

In 1880, a new tower with walls made of rhyolite (quartz porphyry) was built next to the existing tower, the statics of which could no longer cope with the ringing of bells . He wears the five bells today. As one of the few bell towers in South Tyrol, it still enables the bell to be rung by hand after the year 2000, which is not intended to replace the lack of electricity, but rather to maintain a popular tradition in the village.

An important part of the church is the picture on the high altar, which represents Mary and is referred to as the Sorrowful Mother of God or Weeping Mother of God . It is a copy of a work by Giovanni Battista Salvi Sassoferrato . The picture was originally housed in a farmhouse, but was ceremoniously transferred to the church in 1733 after miraculous events. This picture made St. Nikolaus a well-known Tyrolean pilgrimage site. Today the influx of pilgrims is comparatively very small. In the church there are votive tablets on which prayers have been answered.

In addition to German toponyms , as in the surrounding towns, there are Romansh origins that have more or less been preserved in the German population over the centuries, e.g. B .:

  • Prunar: plum grove
  • Ganggawina: wine (mountain) basin
  • Walotscha: small (or bad) valley
  • Goliree (pointed): place with hazelnuts
  • Fuiana: foliage

(the meaning is given after the name)

economy

Agriculture (grapes, apples) and tourism are of primary importance. There are no large craft businesses because politics promotes their concentration in the craft zone that lies outside the parliamentary group. There is a restaurant and a pub and a public cellar in the village. Soon after the turn of the last millennium, the last two grocer's shops closed. Civil servants find work outside the group.

traffic

In 1889 the road over the Mendelpass , built shortly before, was continued through the center of St. Nikolaus as a connection with the center of Kaltern. The part of the street that leads through the village was named Heppenheimer Straße after the partnership Kaltern- Heppenheim (Germany) was concluded in 1971. Up until then there were no street names in St. Nikolaus. In the event of the Mendelbahn stopping occasionally , the replacement bus service takes place on this street. The place is also the terminus of the SAD bus service that connects Bolzano with Kaltern. A footpath to the Mendel Pass also starts from St. Nikolaus. About halfway up this path there are ruins of a customs house that has probably not been used for centuries. The level next to it still bears the name Zollwies today .

Celebrations and parties

The church day on December 6th is celebrated with a solemn ceremony. The grocer's market on this day takes place outside of the fraction in the main town of Kaltern. The feast of Pentecost is also celebrated in a solemn manner, especially every five years, namely in the years with the last digits 3 and 8 (so-called Säkulum). The tradition of the Krampus Day on December 5th, the eve of the Church Day, had hardly been maintained towards the end of the 20th century, but was revived years later.

Public and clubs

Public offices and club houses are usually located outside the parliamentary group in the center of the community. An exception is the hall of the St. Nikolaus volunteer fire brigade, which also houses a meeting room that is used for various public events. The St. Nikolaus volunteer fire brigade is a separate group that is affiliated with the Caldaro volunteer fire brigade .

Personalities

The local violin maker Matthias Alban (1634–1712) achieved international fame . The father of the painter Peter Paul Morandell comes from St. Nicholas .

literature

  • Bruno Mahlknecht : South Tyrolean area guide No. 20 / Kaltern and surroundings . Athesia Publishing House, Bolzano, 1979.
  • Otto Stolz : The spread of Germanness in South Tyrol in the light of the documents . Munich / Berlin, 1927.

Coordinates: 46 ° 25 '  N , 11 ° 14'  E