The ladins

Over 700 years ago the first hunters arrived here. With bows and arrows ready they waited for the animals to emerge from the dense woods. For hundreds of years Man felt part of the seasonal change - of the earth’s vibrations, of the rhythmic beat of the plants and the animals. Man was at the heart of Nature. It was the Romans who brought technology and a new language. Populations crossed the peaks that formed what was neither known as South Tyrol or Alto Adige. From The Danube to Lake Garda, from The Pass of San Gottardo to Trieste they moved. Our grandparents told us of those journeys and exploits, of how the children and the language grew side by side, healthy, robust and proud to be called Ladin.

Later it was to be the Bavarians, the Slavs, the Normans who crossed the newest of mountain chains in Europe, the Alps. The language they spoke, our Ladin, began to spread in pocket valley style as did the populations themselves. Then later on again it was to be the turn of the French and the Germans to stake a claim to this land. Such inventions of the Mussolini and Hitler years as the option to repatriate and the forced italianisation divided the minds, hearts, and homes of Tyrolean and Ladin families. And yet despite all this the Ladin language has survived in Engadina, in Friuli, and all around the Sella Group of mountains. Our small world now has the need of loving care and attention – both from our heart and in our deeds and not least from our minds.