East Tyrol - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

East Tyrol, or East Tirol , is an exclave of the Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n state

States of Austria

Austria is a federal republic made up of nine states, known in German as Länder . Since Land is also the German word for a country, the term Bundesländer is often used instead to avoid ambiguity. The Constitution of Austria uses both terms...

of Tyrol

Tyrol (state)

Tyrol is a state or Bundesland, located in the west of Austria. It comprises the Austrian part of the historical region of Tyrol.The state is split into two parts–called North Tyrol and East Tyrol–by a -wide strip of land where the state of Salzburg borders directly on the Italian province of...

, sharing no border with the main North Tyrol

North Tyrol

North Tyrol, or North Tirol is the main part of the Austrian state of Tyrol, located in the western part of the country. The other part of the state is East Tyrol, which also belongs to Austria, but does not share a border with North Tyrol....

part of the state. It corresponds with the administrative district (Bezirk
Districts of Austria
Austria is divided into 84 political districts , and 15 Statutarstädte which form their own districts.-Function:The Austrian Bezirk is roughly equivalent to the Landkreis in Germany and County in the United States. The administrative office of a district, the Bezirkshauptmannschaft is headed by the...

) of Lienz

Lienz (district)

The Bezirk Lienz is an administrative district in Tyrol, Austria. It is the only district in East Tyrol. The district borders the Pinzgau in the north, the districts Spittal an der Drau and Hermagor in the east, Veneto in the south, and South Tyrol in the west.Area of the district is 2,019.87...

The area around the former Roman municipium

Municipium

Municipium , the prototype of English municipality, was the Latin term for a town or city. Etymologically the municipium was a social contract between municipes, the "duty holders," or citizens of the town. The duties, or munera, were a communal obligation assumed by the municipes in exchange for...

of Aguntum

Aguntum

The ruins of Aguntum are Roman site in East Tirol, Austria, located ca. 4 km east of Lienz in the Drau valley. The city appears to have been built to exploit the local sources of iron, copper, zinc and gold...

was from the 12th century held by the Counts of Gorizia, who took their residence at Lienz

Lienz

Lienz is a medieval town in the Austrian state of Tyrol. It is the administrative centre of the Lienz district, which covers all of East Tyrol. The municipality also includes the cadastral subdivision of Patriasdorf.-Geography:...

and inherited the County of Tyrol

County of Tyrol

The County of Tyrol, Princely County from 1504, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire, from 1814 a province of the Austrian Empire and from 1867 a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary...

in 1253. While Tyrol was lost to the Austrian House of Habsburg in 1363, the Gorizian counts retained Lienz until the extinction of the line in 1500. Emperor Maximilian I of Habsburg

Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor

Maximilian I , the son of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor and Eleanor of Portugal, was King of the Romans from 1486 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1493 until his death, though he was never in fact crowned by the Pope, the journey to Rome always being too risky...

finally incorporated it into Austrian Tyrol.

The reason for East Tyrol's present-day situation is based on the defeat of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

and its subsequent dissolution. By the 1915 Treaty of London, the Kingdom of Italy

Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)

The Kingdom of Italy was a state forged in 1861 by the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which was its legal predecessor state...

had joined the victorious Triple Entente

Triple Entente

The Triple Entente was the name given to the alliance among Britain, France and Russia after the signing of the Anglo-Russian Entente in 1907....

and in exchange was to obtain the Tyrolean lands south of the Brenner Pass

Brenner Pass

- Roadways :The motorway E45 leading from Innsbruck via Bolzano to Verona and Modena uses this pass, and is one of the most important north-south connections in Europe...

as claimed by the Italian irredentism movement. Therefore according to the 1919 Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the rump state of German Austria

German Austria

Republic of German Austria was created following World War I as the initial rump state for areas with a predominantly German-speaking population within what had been the Austro-Hungarian Empire, without the Kingdom of Hungary, which in 1918 had become the Hungarian Democratic Republic.German...

had to cede the southern part of the former crown land Princely County of Tyrol

County of Tyrol

The County of Tyrol, Princely County from 1504, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire, from 1814 a province of the Austrian Empire and from 1867 a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary...

, the present-day provinces of Trentino and South Tyrol

South Tyrol

South Tyrol , also known by its Italian name Alto Adige, is an autonomous province in northern Italy. It is one of the two autonomous provinces that make up the autonomous region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. The province has an area of and a total population of more than 500,000 inhabitants...

and parts of the province of Belluno

Province of Belluno

TheThe Province of Belluno is a province in the Veneto region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Belluno.It has an area of 3,678 km², and a total population of 214,026 .-Geography:...

, to Italy.

In Austria, East Tyrol borders the states of Carinthia

Carinthia (state)

Carinthia is the southernmost Austrian state or Land. Situated within the Eastern Alps it is chiefly noted for its mountains and lakes.The main language is German. Its regional dialects belong to the Southern Austro-Bavarian group...

in the east and Salzburg

Salzburg (state)

Salzburg is a state or Land of Austria with an area of 7,156 km2, located adjacent to the German border. It is also known as Salzburgerland, to distinguish it from its capital city, also named Salzburg...

in the north, while it also shares borders with the Italian provinces of South Tyrol

South Tyrol

(Alto Adige) in the west and Belluno

Province of Belluno

TheThe Province of Belluno is a province in the Veneto region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Belluno.It has an area of 3,678 km², and a total population of 214,026 .-Geography:...

(Region of Veneto

Veneto

Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...

) in the south. It is separated from the Tyrolean district of Schwaz

Schwaz (district)

The Bezirk Schwaz is an administrative district in Tyrol, Austria. It borders Bavaria in the north, the districts of Kufstein, Kitzbühel and Pinzgau in the east, South Tyrol in the south, and the Innsbruck-Land district in the west.Area of the district is 1,843.20 km², with a population of...

in North Tyrol by a 9.5 km (5.9 mi) long common border of South Tyrol with the Salzburg Pinzgau region.

Attractions

The Hohe Tauern National Park is in Osttirol, along with several mountains including the Grossglockner, Grossvenediger and others.

Attractions

See also