Nalles
The Autonomous Province of Bolzano - South Tyrol
The Autonomous Province of Bolzano - South Tyrol is the largest province in Italy and is located in the Trentino-Alto Adige region. With its 533,175 inhabitants, the province shares part of its territory with the province of Trento and Tyrol (Austria). This territory is part of the Euroregion Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino, which corresponds to the territory of Tyrol. The province of Bolzano is linked to Tyrol for linguistic and cultural reasons and belongs to the geographical macro-area of Triveneto along with Trentino, Veneto, and Friuli-Venezia Giulia.
Toponymy
The province of Bolzano has an official double denomination. In the 1972 special statute Region and subsequent state implementation laws, it is called "Province of Bolzano" or "Autonomous Province of Bolzano", while the equivalent official translation in German is "Provinz Bozen" or "Autonome Provinz Bozen". Article 116 of the Constitution of the Italian Republic introduces a third denomination, "Alto Adige/Südtirol," starting from the constitutional reform of 2001.
The authority uses the dual denomination "Autonomous Province of Bolzano - South Tyrol" and "Autonome Provinz Bozen - Südtirol," while the inhabitants are generally called "Altoatesini." However, in Italian, one can also find terms such as "South Tyrol," "Sudtirolo," or "Tirolo del Sud" for the province of Bolzano and "sudtirolesi" for its German or Ladin-speaking inhabitants.
The Ladin Form
The Ladin form is not present in the autonomy statute or other state laws. However, in provincial acts, it is often called "Provinzia Autonoma de Balsan - Südtirol" (in the Badiotto dialect variant) or "Provinzia Autonoma de Bulsan - Südtirol" (in the Gardena dialect variant).
The History of the "Südtirol" Denomination
During Austro-Hungarian rule, the territory of today's province of Bolzano was known as "Mitteltirol," or Central Tyrol. The designation "Südtirol" (South Tyrol) referred to the current Trentino or the entire southern part of Tyrol (i.e., Trentino-Alto Adige), where Italian-speaking South Tyrol ("italienisches Südtirol," "Welschsüdtirol," or "Welschtirol," i.e., Trentino) was distinguished from German-speaking Tyrol ("Deutschsüdtirol," i.e., today's South Tyrol). Therefore, the indiscriminate use of the designation "Südtirol" to indicate the territory between Brenner and Salorno would be, according to some authors, unjustified. In any case, the London Pact of 1915, Article 4 specifically referred to the "Trentino" and the "Cisalpine Tyrol" (south of Brenner) separately.
In any case, the Autonomous Province of Bolzano - South Tyrol is one of Italy's largest and most populous provinces. With an official double denomination, it represents a linguistic and cultural peculiarity of our country.
