The ''KäseStrasse Bregenzerwald'' ("Cheese Route of the Bregenz Forest") is a

non-profit organisation A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

and route which links cheese-producing businesses of the

Bregenz Forest The Bregenzerwald (, ) is one of the main regions in the States of Austria, state of Vorarlberg (Austria). It overlaps, but is not coterminous with, the Bregenz Forest Mountains, which belong to a mountain range, range of the Northern Limestone A ...

Vorarlberg Vorarlberg ( ; ; , , or ) is the westernmost States of Austria, state () of Austria. It has the second-smallest geographical area after Vienna and, although it also has the second-smallest population, it is the state with the second-highest popu ...

(

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

). It was founded in 1998 with the aim of supporting local farmers, craftsmen and tradesmen. All members and partners of the KäseStrasse contribute to preserving the traditional agricultural landscape of the Bregenz Forest.

History

The production of cheese has a long tradition in the Bregenzerwald. The

Celts The Celts ( , see Names of the Celts#Pronunciation, pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( ) were a collection of Indo-European languages, Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient Indo-European people, reached the apoge ...

first brought the region into contact with livestock and alpine agriculture. Milk and dairy products, especially the so-called mountain cheeses (

Bergkäse for, de, Bergkäse, mountain cheese refers to a number of varieties of cheese produced in the Alps. This includes products of mountain farming, the cultivation of alpine pastures as well as the milk processing of local producers in dairies. The ...

) produced on the alpine pastures and village dairies, were vital for the nutrition of the

Walser The Walser people are the speakers of the Walser German dialects, a variety of Highest Alemannic. They inhabit the region of the Alps of Swiss Alps, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, as well as the fringes of Italy and Austria. The Walser peopl ...

population for centuries. The cheese soon became an important export product, thus further developing its value for the economy. For producing the dairy-products, the local farmers drove

livestock Livestock are the Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...

between the valleys in winter, the medium-high

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Types of pasture Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, c ...

s in spring and high-pastures in summer. The milk obtained, separated from cow, goat and sheep milk (mainly cow raw milk), is transported down the road by means of a transport cableway or handcart or car, where a milk tank takes up the milk. The tanks are then brought to a cheese factory (today near Hittisau), where cheese production starts. When Austria joined the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

in 1995, the Bregenz Forest received funds from EU programs, for example LEADER II (today LEADER+), for the development of the economy in rural areas. Without the Käsestraße Bregenzerwald, economic survival would not have been possible for the majority of small-scale farms in the 1990s. This so-called

alpine transhumance Alpine transhumance is transhumance as practiced in the Alps, that is, a seasonal droving of grazing livestock between the valleys in winter and the high mountain pastures in summer (German ' from the term for "seasonal mountain pasture", '). ...

("Dreistufenwirtschaft" in German) shaped much of the landscape in the

Alps The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...

and is still practiced today. This type of ranching means that the livestock is moved from one stable to another several times a year. In 2011, alpine transhumance in the

was declared an

intangible cultural heritage An intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is a practice, representation, expression, knowledge, or skill considered by UNESCO to be part of a place's cultural heritage. Buildings, historic places, monuments, and artifacts are cultural property. In ...

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

. It was recognised that the Bregenz Forest is "an impressive landscape on the north side of the Alps" that has "largely maintained its traditional farming structure." Many of the characteristic Bregenz Forest farmsteads of the 18th and 19th centuries have been conserved. Thus, farms, farmers huts and alpine pastures are still part of the typical scenery in Vorarlberg. Moreover, the life of the locals was heavily influenced by alpine transhumance and its seasonal migration which resulted in the development of traditional Alpine culture, such as

Yodel Yodeling (also jodeling) is a form of singing which involves repeated and rapid changes of pitch between the low-pitch chest register (or "chest voice") and the high-pitch head register or falsetto. The English word ''yodel'' is derived from t ...

Alphorn The alphorn (; ; ) is a traditional lip-reed wind instrument. It consists of a very long straight wooden natural horn, with a length of , a conical bore and a wooden cup-shaped mouthpiece. Traditionally the alphorn was made in one piece from ...

Schwingen (from German language, German ' "to swing"), also known as Swiss wrestling (French ') and natively (and colloquially) as ' (Swiss German for "breeches-lifting"), is a style of folk wrestling native to Switzerland, more specifically the Prealps, ...

The route

The Cheese Route starts in

Bregenz Bregenz (; ) is the capital of Vorarlberg, the westernmost states of Austria, state of Austria. The city lies on the east and southeast shores of Lake Constance, the third-largest freshwater lake in Central Europe, between Switzerland in the wes ...

and runs along the Bregenzerwaldstraße L 200 and connects villages through the Alps. Along this route, there are many farmers, dairy-producers, shops and cheese-producers. The area was also integrated with its cheese varieties in 2005 as a region "Bregenzerwälder Alpkäse" (Bregenz Forest alp-cheese) and Bergkäse (mountain-cheese) in the project "Genussregion Österreich", which is an organisation that promotes traditional food and food-products of Austria.

Photo gallery

File:Käseplatte (c) Agnes Ammann - Vorarlberg Tourismus.jpg, Cheese platter in Vorarlberg File:Käsekeller Käseladen Schwarzenberg (c) Agnes Ammann - Vorarlberg Tourismus.jpg, Cheese shop in Schwarzenberg File:KäsekellerLingenau.JPG, Bregenz Forest cheese cellar (Bregenzerwälder Käsekeller) in

Lingenau Lingenau is a municipality in the district of Bregenz, in the westernmost Austrian state of Vorarlberg. Geography Lingenau is located southeast of Lake Constance, at an altitude of 685m. 30.8% of the area is wooded. There are no other cadastr ...

File:Almabtrieb Walsertal 2018 IMG 4047-2.jpg, Almabtrieb in the

Kleinwalsertal Kleinwalsertal is a valley in the Austrian province of Vorarlberg and part of the Bregenz district. It includes the municipality of Mittelberg and consists of three villages along the River Breitach. Due to the geographic location in the All ...

(2018) File:Käsetafel Andelsbuch 02.JPG, The longest cheese-table in the world (in the Guinness book of the records about 500 m) was covered on May 31, 2008, as celebration for the 10th anniversary of the KäseStrasse Bregenzerwald in

Andelsbuch Andelsbuch is a municipality in the district of Bregenz in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg. Population Initiatives The Werkraum Bregenzerwald is an association of craftsmen in the Bregenz Forest founded in 1999. It aims at networking an ...

for about 2000 guests.

References

External links

Website of the Cheese Route in German

Website of the Cheese Route in English
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kasestrasse Bregenzerwald Economy of Vorarlberg Austrian cheeses Cheese festivals History of the Alps Bregenz Forest Mountains

History

The route

See also

Photo gallery

References

External links