IMS in the heart of the Alps...

Protected by huge coral reefs comparable to the Australian Great Barrier Reef, millions of years ago enormous masses of limestone deposited in the modern-day Alps region. Today, these products of limestone sedimentation form the largest European mountain range with peaks reaching icy heights.
The Alps: A masterpiece of nature - dangerous and vitally important at the same time. A witness of time which tells history of the Earth: originated in the Mesozoic Era and shaped over barely imaginable amounts of time by gigantic geological processes…

Origins

The Alps are a deeply complex mountain range from a geological point of view. Made up primarily of oceanic sedimentation and crust material from different eras, their key formation period began 135 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period. The constant pressure and crushing of large masses of land made the rocks rise upwards and left a foredeep in the region of today's foothills of the Alps. At a pace of up to five millimetres per year, the mountains slowly rose to a height of several kilometres. At the same time, wind and water began to wear down the young peaks. Rivers washed away the eroded rock material into the prealpine foothills, where a huge deposit of scree formed: the molasse basin.
The higher up, the fiercer the effect of erosion: many kilometres of rock were ground down again by the elements. Today, the Alps only grow at a speed of 0.5 millimetres per year.

Formation of the Dolomites...

The Alps as a climatic divide

From Genoa to Vienna, the alpine ridge is 1,200 km long and reaches from the Ligurian Sea all the way to the Pannonian Basin in an arc up to 250 km wide.
With 4,808 m the Mont Blanc is the highest elevation in the alpine "sea of peaks".
The Alps are a crucial border both in terms of vegetation and climate and an enormous water storage tank for many European countries. They separate the Mediterranean climate from the oceanic climate of central Europe with its more intense seasonal differences, and stop arctic cold fronts from advancing into the Mediterranean. Without them, warm desert winds from northern Africa would blow all the way to the north of Europe and would allow for palm trees to grow on the sub-tropical beaches of Hamburg or vines on the south face of Norwegian mountains.

The Alps: facts and figures

• Surface: approx. 200,000 km²
• Length: approx. 1,200 km
• Width: 150 to 250 km
• Countries: France, Monaco, Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria, Slovenia
• Plants: over 4,500 species
• Animals: over 30,000 species

Experience South Tyrol at the IMS^®...

Cultures and linguistic groups in the Alps

During the early Middle Ages, the Alps became a dividing line between languages and cultures: The northern side was principally inhabited by people of Germanic origin and language, while the south side was increasingly characterised by speakers of romance languages, with the exception of the south-Slavic Slovenes on the eastern border of the Alps.

The many dialects developed and spoken in their distant and remote valleys are becoming increasingly rare. However, small languages like Romansh, Ladin and Friulian have survived in spite of the strong competition of Italian and German. A linguistically interesting phenomenon is the expansion of the alemannic Walser dialect from the Upper Valais region in Switzerland all the way to the border of Tyrol in Austria, which occurred between the 13^th and 14^th century because of the region's attractive pastures at high altitudes.

The three languages of South Tyrol...

Traditions and culture in the Alps

Festivities, traditions and customs in the alpine region are typically deeply rooted in its history and religion. They often originated in historically handed down poetry, legends or stories which told of gods and demons, as people wanted to conjure the elemental forces of nature or sought protection from the elements. When Christianity spread throughout the Alps in the early Middle Ages, pagan traditions mixed with Christian ceremonies.

Mythology around the Dolomites...

The popular act of stacking stones (e.g. the Stoanernen Stone Men in the Sarentino/Sarntal valley) seems to originally have had both a practical and a cultic background. Farmers' traditions too have always played a significant role in alpine customs, music and folklore: prayer calls, transhumance, yodelling, alpine folk music etc.

Experience alpine traditions at the IMS^®: warming down and chestnut roasting (Törggelen)...
Hiking in the Alps - Explore the Dolomites with the stars!