Welzelach

Welzelach

The core settlement of Welzelach (from the east)

Welzelach is a fraction of the municipality of Virgen in East Tyrol. The village on the northeast flank of the Berger-Kogel had 104 inhabitants in 2001, making it the second smallest fraction of Virgen in terms of population. In addition to the core settlement, Welzelach also includes the hamlet of Berg and the Marcherhöfe.

location

Welzelach is located in the west of the municipality of Virgen on the northeast slope of the Berger-Kogel at an altitude of 1,189 meters. The fraction is bounded in the east by the Isel and in the southeast by the Mullitzbach . In terms of transport, Welzelach can be accessed from the east via the Niedermauern fraction and the hamlets of Gries and Rain on the Virgentaler Landesstraße. In addition, a road leads from the community of Prägraten over the hamlet of Berg to Welzelach.

The farms of Welzelach are close together in the center of a field, only the farms Lipper and Koala are a bit away from the core settlement. In the north, beyond the Bergerbach, the hamlet of Berg adjoins the core settlement. The hamlet lies above the Isel Gorge at a height of 1,335 meters and includes four residential buildings. The road from Berg continues south to the two elevated Marcherhöfe at an altitude of 1,400 meters.

history

The hamlet of Berg

The flint scrapers discovered in Welzelach prove the presence of people during the Neolithic Age. Evidence of permanent settlement in the fraction was discovered in the late 19th century. After the Motha farmer in the hamlet of Berg had thrown away a rusted, iron lance tip in 1889, he uncovered a stone slab the following year while plowing his field. Under the raised stone slab there was a cremation grave with iron and bronze grave goods. After the discovery became known, Alexander Schernthaner carried out systematic excavations at the site, which resulted in a cemetery with 56 graves being found. The closely spaced graves are rectangular to square depressions with a length of around 30 centimeters, which were bordered by uncut, erected stones. The ceiling slab, which was only covered with 20 to 30 centimeters of humus, rested on the graves. Schernthaner found rich grave goods in the graves, such as weapons, tools, jewelry and utensils, including axes, iron knives, lance tips, rings, bracelets and brooches made of bronze as well as pottery shards. The finds were dated to the 6th or 5th century BC and can therefore be assigned to the earlier Iron Age. Researchers believe that the settlement was related to copper mining in the region.

The most important find from Welzelach is the Welzelach situla . The richly decorated bronze bucket with handles was only partially preserved, was around 25 centimeters high, had a diameter of 24 centimeters in the upper area and 14 centimeters in the lower area. The figural motifs include men with musical instruments and women with vessels on their heads. Other depictions show a hare hunt, a woman washing a man's feet, a drinking scene and a man carrying an ax. Furthermore, depictions of animals and plants have been preserved on the fragments.

Chapels

The New Year's Chapel in Welzelach

The New Year's Eve chapel is located away from the fraction on a small rock plinth above the Isel Gorge. It was built in 1642 and served the rural population as a place of pilgrimage to pray for their cattle. In addition to the New Year's Eve chapel, Welzelach also has the Moserhof's house chapel. For decades, the house chapel housed several figures of saints, which were brought to Welzelach from the Franciscan monastery in Lienz in the course of the neo-Gothic redesign of the Patter Altar in 1840 , after a priest had told his brother from Moserhof about the renovation in the monastery.

literature

• Louis Oberwalder : Virgen in the Hohe Tauern National Park. Edition Löwenzahn, Innsbruck 1999, ISBN 3-7066-2197-5
• Meinrad Pizzinini: East Tyrol. The Lienz district. His works of art, historical forms of life and settlement. Verlag St. Peter, Salzburg 1974 (Austrian Art Monographs, Vol. VII) ISBN 3-900173-17-6

Web links

Commons : Welzelach  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Statistics Austria (PDF; 8 kB) Virgen community data, 2001 census

Coordinates: 47 ° 0 ′ 5.5 ″  N , 12 ° 25 ′ 4.3 ″  E