Sauris (german: Zahre; fur, Sauris) is a ''

comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...

'' (municipality) in the

Province of Udine The province of Udine ( it, provincia di Udine, fur, provincie di Udin, sl, videmska pokrajina, Resian dialect, Resian: , german: Provinz Weiden) was a Provinces of Italy, province in the autonomous region Friuli-Venezia Giulia of Italy, borderi ...

in the Italian region

Friuli-Venezia Giulia (man), it, Friulana (woman), it, Giuliano (man), it, Giuliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_t ...

. At an elevation of , it is the highest municipality in the region and one of the German language islands in Northeast Italy. Sauris is part of the Alpine pearls cooperation for

sustainable tourism Sustainable tourism is a concept that covers the complete tourism experience, including concern for economic, social and environmental issues as well as attention to improving tourists' experiences and addressing the needs of host communities. Su ...

Geography

Staumauer vom Lago di Sauris 07102007 03

Sauris di sopra Pfarrkirche Heiliger Stefan 07102007 64

Sauris is situated within the

Carnia Carnia ( fur, Cjargne or ''Cjargna''/''Cjargno'' in local variants, vec, Ciargna, german: Karnien, sl, Karnija) is a historical-geographic region in the northeastern Italian area of Friuli. Its 27 municipalities all belong to the Province of Ud ...

mountain area of Friuli, in the Lumiei Valley (''Val Lumiei'') of the Carnic Alps, northwest of the

Monte Bìvera Monte Bìvera (2,474 m) is a mountain of the Carnic Alps in Friuli, northeast Italy. It lies south of the main chain of the Carnics, north of the Tagliamento River and above the resort of Forni di Sopra. It is a twin peaked mountain, with the sli ...

massif. It is located about northwest of the provincial capital

Udine Udine ( , ; fur, Udin; la, Utinum) is a city and ''comune'' in north-eastern Italy, in the middle of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic Sea and the Alps (''Alpi Carniche''). Its population was 100,514 in 2012, 176,000 with t ...

and northwest of

Trieste Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into provi ...

. The municipal area mainly consists of two villages, Sauris di Sotto (''Unterzahre'') und Sauris di Sopra (''Oberzahre''), with a total population of 429 (). Sauris borders the following municipalities: Ampezzo,

Forni di Sopra Forni di Sopra ( fur, For Disore, Carnian dialect: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Udine, in the Dolomite Alps mountain range in northeastern Italy. It is located at the top of the Tagliamento river valley. Languages spoken include ...

Forni di Sotto Forni di Sotto ( fur, For Disot) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Udine in the Italian region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, located about northwest of Trieste and about northwest of Udine. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of ...

, Ovaro, Prato Carnico, and Vigo di Cadore.

History

According to legend, the settlement was founded about 1300 by two exhausted German mercenaries who retired to Carnia. Actually, the Romance place name ''Sauris'', possibly derived from Illyrian ''Savira'' ("current"), was already mentioned in the 12th century. German peasants probably immigrated from the Tyrolean

Hochpustertal The Hochpustertal (High Puster Valley, it, Alta Pusteria) is the easternmost part of the Puster Valley, stretching from the watershed of the Rienz and Drava rivers at Niederdorf in South Tyrol down the Drava to Lienz in East Tyrol, Austria. The ...

and the adjacent Lesachtal in the north. Like the historic Cadore region in the west, Carnia had belonged to the ecclesiastical Patria del Friuli (Patriarchate of Aquileia) since 1077 and passed from the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a Polity, political entity in Western Europe, Western, Central Europe, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, dissolution i ...

to the

Republic of Venice The Republic of Venice ( vec, Repùblega de Venèsia) or Venetian Republic ( vec, Repùblega Vèneta, links=no), traditionally known as La Serenissima ( en, Most Serene Republic of Venice, italics=yes; vec, Serenìsima Repùblega de Venèsia, ...

by 1420. For centuries, the isolated valley could only be reached by steep footpaths. A road to Ampezzo was built from 1919 to 1934; followed by the construction of a large

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, a ...

project in the Lumiei Valley from 1941 onwards. The Lago di Sauris reservoir was completed in 1948. During the period of Italian Fascism, the local population was subject to

Italianization Italianization ( it, italianizzazione; hr, talijanizacija; french: italianisation; sl, poitaljančevanje; german: Italianisierung; el, Ιταλοποίηση) is the spread of Italian culture, language and identity by way of integration or a ...

measures.

Language

Since its foundation, Sauris has been a German linguistic enclave in Friuli and has been able to preserve that status to the present day because of its isolated location. The local dialect, ''Saurano'', preserves archaic features of the

Tyrol Tyrol (; historically the Tyrole; de-AT, Tirol ; it, Tirolo) is a historical region in the Alps - in Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Emp ...

ean dialect to which it is related. This vernacular is a variety of

Puster Valley The Puster Valley ( it, Val Pusteria ; german: Pustertal, ) is one of the largest longitudinal valleys in the Alps that runs in an east-west direction between Lienz in East Tyrol, Austria, and Mühlbach near Brixen in South Tyrol, Italy. The Sou ...

Tyrolean Bavarian that is closely related to the speech of nearby

Sappada Sappada (german: Pladen or ; in the local Southern Bavarian dialect;Dizionario Sappadino-Italian ...

''(Plodn)''. It is unrelated to the Germanic

Cimbrian language Cimbrian ( cim, zimbar, links=no, ; german: Zimbrisch; it, cimbro) refers to any of several local Upper German varieties spoken in northeastern Italy. The speakers of the language are known as ''Zimbern'' in German. Cimbrian is a Germanic l ...

spoken in other language islands in

Trentino Trentino ( lld, Trentin), officially the Autonomous Province of Trento, is an autonomous province of Italy, in the country's far north. The Trentino and South Tyrol constitute the region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, an autonomous region ...

and Veneto. The population of Sauris is in large part trilingual, also able to speak Italian and Friulian. The ''comune'' falls under article 29 of the Regional Law of 18 December 2007 concerning Friulian, under which the Region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia established official nomenclature in both standard Friulian and the local forms of Friulian of those ''comuni'' in which Friulian is a ''de facto'' language, and also the regional laws 4/99 and 20/2009, establishing linguistic minority rights and aid for the German-speaking populations within Friuli-Venezia Giulia.Una regione multilingue
Agjenzie Regjonâl pe Lenghe Furlane, Regione autonoma Friulia Venezia Giulia, retrieved 5 May 2013

References

External links

Municipal site

Tourist website
{{authority control Cities and towns in Friuli-Venezia Giulia Carnic Alps