Tyrol

Tyrol, a province of Austria, bounded on the N. by Bavaria, E. by Salzburg and Carinthia, W. by Switzerland, and S. by Italy; area (with Vorarlberg) 11,307 square miles. The surface is mountainous, being traversed from E. to W. by the main chain of the Alps, and includes the basins of the Inn and the Lech on the N., and the Etsch (Adige) and the Drave on the S. The occupations of the people are mainly pastoral, but there is a good deal of mining, and forestry and the cultivation of maize, wheat, and other cereals are also important industries; and in the southern valleys wine and fruit are grown, and silkworms reared. About three-fifths of the inhabitants are Germans, the remainder being Italians; they are nearly all Roman Catholics. The Tyrolese are noted for their loyalty to the House of Hapsburg, of whose heredity dominions their country has formed a part since the 4th century. The government is carried on by a Diet and Landtag, which meets at the capital, Insbruck (q.v.).