Online Encyclopedia

MERAN

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 148 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

MERAN  , the

chief
See also:
town of the administrative
See also:
district of the same name in the
See also:
Austrian province of the Tirol, 20 M. by
See also:
rail N.W. of Botzen.on the
See also:
Brenner
See also:
line, while the Vintschgau railway connects it with Mals, 37 M . N.W . It is the chief town in the upper Adige valley, a region which bears the
See also:
special name of the Vintschgau, and is on the high road either to
See also:
Landeck and the
See also:
Lower Engadine by the Reschen Scheideck Pass (4902 ft.), or more directly to the Lower Engadine by the Munster valley and the Ofen Pass (7071 ft.) . In 1900 Meran had 9284 inhabitants (or, with the neighbouring villages of Untermais and Obermais, 13,201), mainly German-speaking and Romanist . The town is picturesquely situated, at a height of Tool ft., at the
See also:
foot of the
See also:
vine-clad Kiichelberg, and on the right
See also:
bank of the Passer
See also:
River, just above its junction with the Adige or Etsch . Meran proper consists mainly of one long narrow street, the Laubengasse, flanked by covered arcades, but the name is often used to include several adjacent villages, Untermais and Obermais being on the
See also:
left bank of the Passer, while Gratsch is on its right bank and north-west of the main town . The most noteworthy buildings are the parish church (14th to 15th centuries) and the old residence (15th century) of the
See also:
counts of the Tirol . Meran is best known as a much-frequented resort for consumptive patients, for whom it is well suited by reason of the purity of the air and the
See also:
comparative immunity of the place from wind and rain in the winter . It is also visited in spring for the whey cure and in autumn for the
See also:
grape cure . To the north-west, on the Ktichelberg, is the
See also:
half-ruined castle of Tirol (2096 ft.), the
See also:
original seat of the
See also:
family which gave its name to the county . Meran may have been built on the site of a
See also:
Roman settlement, but is first mentioned in 857 . From the 12th century to about 1420 it was the capital of the ever-extending
See also:
land named after it Tirol, but then had to give way to
See also:
Innsbruck, while the
See also:
building of the Brenner railway (1864–1867) and the rise of Botzen have decreased its commercial importance .

(W . A . B .

End of Article: MERAN
[back]
MEQUINEZ (the Spanish form of the Arabic Miknasa)
[next]
MERBECK (or MARBECK), JOHN (d. c. 1585)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click and select "copy." Paste it into a website, email, or other HTML document.