General introduction

Val Gardena is located in the heart of the Dolomites, which are world-wide known for their vertical rock faces and the breathtaking views. Because of their uniqueness and extraordinary beauty, the UNESCO added these mountains to their list of the most beautiful and valuable landscapes of the world. They became a world natural heritage site on 26th June 2009.

The valley is part of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano – South Tyrol, which lies in the very north of the Italian Republic. South Tyrol borders in the south to the Italian Autonomous Province of Trento, in the southeast to the Italian Region Veneto, in the north to Austria, in the northwest to Switzerland and in the west to the Italian Region Lombardy.

During history, this area stood under various reigns until it was annexed to Italy in 1920. Before this date, it belonged to Tyrol, then part of Austro-Hungary. Thus, still nowadays, the majority of the people in South Tyrol speaks German. Not only the linguistic diversity but also the special South Tyrolean culture have contributed 1972 to the recognition of the Statute of Autonomy by the Italian Republic.

South Tyrol is considered an enviable autonomy model sought for by quite a few minority groups. This model is based on the peaceful coexistence of three different language groups: the Italian, the German and the Ladin one.
Ladin is spoken in all five valleys around the Sella Group: in Val Gardena, in Val Badia, in Val di Fassa, in Ampezzo and in Livinallongo.

Ladin is a Romance language. It originated through the fusion of the Rhaetic language with the Latin one, which around 15 BC spread in the Alps through the Roman conquerors. Up until a few centuries ago, this Rhaeto-Romance language was spoken in a big area of the Alps. In the course of years, it almost completely disappeared because of the influence of the German language from the north and the Italian one from the south. Besides the Ladin areas in the Dolomites, there are two more Rhaeto-Romance linguistic enclaves: one is to be found in the Grisons in Switzerland and the other one in the Italian Autonomous Region Friuli-Venezia Giulia.

The majority of the people of Val Gardena (about 85-90 %) speaks Ladin as well as German and Italian. This is, among other things, promoted through a multilingual school system: the pupils are in contact with the three languages, used also as medium of teaching, from the very first day on. In addition, there are several cultural institutions which promote the research, the use and the dissemination of the Ladin language editing newspapers as well as television and radio programmes, composing and collecting literature and dictionaries and organizing concerts, expositions and other events. Hence, the valley is officially trilingual. This can also be seen looking at the place names listed always in all three languages.