[Translate to englisch:] Zillertal
The Zillertal is the broadest and best-known valley in Tyrol. Spanning an area of some 1,098 km² - in other words, a ninth of entire Northern Tyrol - it lies in the very heart of Tyrol. Only 40 km east of Innsbruck, it extends out from close to Jenbach and the Inntal valley, for a total length of 32 kilometres in a virtually straight line to the south.
In contrast to other Tyrolean side valleys, the Zillertal does not have to ascend over an initial valley tier, climbing only slightly on its way from Strass (523 metres) to Mayrhofen (633 m), where it then divides into the Tuxer Tal, the Zemmgrund, the Stillupgrund and Zillergrund. (Smaller source valleys are known here as "Gründe"). Branching off from the northern valley are the unpopulated Märzengrund and Finsinggrund, as does the Gerlostal near Zell am Ziller.
At Strass, the first town in the Zillertal, the Ziller - a feeder river from a glacial stream in the Zillertal Alps on the border to South Tyrol and Salzburg - empties as a tributary into the Inn, which, at this point at least, flows at a very sedate pace. Until the 16th century, this was the point where Bavarian, Tyrolean and Salzburg sovereignty all came face to face.
This border remains visible to this day, with the Ziller separating the diocese of Innsbruck - formerly Brixen - and Salzburg, a fact reflected in the colours of the church steeples: on the left of the Ziller, the steeples are a radiant red, while to the right, in contrast, they are green, a symbol of their membership in the Salzburg archdiocese.
Just like the people of the Zillertal, their language is also full of life and richly facetted. The dialect is quite different from that of the Lower Inn Valley, representing a conglomeration of dialects from the Inntal, South Tyrol, Bavaria and Salzburg. Many ancient sayings, rhymes and songs remain alive and well here in the Zillertal.
Unsere Lage (google Maps) | Zell am Ziller | Zillertal | Tirol
