The district town of Hermagor is situated exactly at the point where the Gitschtal valley opens into the Gailtal valley. The town is bordered on the northern side of the valley by the Bailtal chain and on the south side by the mountains of the Carnic ridge. This protected location is undisputably one of the reasons for which the Gailtal valley was populated from a very early stage. Discoveries there have been dated as far back as the second century before Christ. Several crossings over the mountain chains such as the Plöcken pass, the Gailbergsattel pass, the Naßfeld and the Kreuzberg made trade relations possible. In the 3rd century B.C., the Illyrian population was interspersed by Celts. The Gailtal valley was thus a part of the famous Noric Kingdom, whose iron products were exported as far as the Mediterranean. The Romans tried to take the iron production for themselves; in 15 B.V., Noricum was occupied and in 45 A.D. incorporated as a province into the Roman Empire. However, the Empire was destroyed in the course of Migration Period, and the Teutons, Avars and Slavs passed through the Gailtal valley. Even today, numerous farmland names indicate the Slovenian population that continues to live in the eastern part of the Gailtal: Poludnig, Oisternig or Auernig. An insight into the history of the Gailtal valley can be gained by visiting the Gailtal local history museum in Möderndorf castle, an interesting three-storey building in the form of a cube. Hermagor was mentioned in documents for the first time as early as 1169 and the presence of pastureland is recorded in written reports. The earliest mention of the pastureland with adjoining cheese dairies comes from the rent-roll of the Count of Görz in the years 1375-1381. Furthermore, there is also a report from the year 1876 that describes pasture farming in the Gailtal valley in great detail and thus gives us a good understanding of economic relations at the time. Many of the pastures were heavily effected by events in World War I. Attempts were made to promote agricultural production using state support programmes that laid particular emphasis on mountain regions. As the Gailtal pastures were badly damaged along the front-line, some of them had to be completely restructured. In the course of the reconstruction measures, great importance was attached to the fulfilment of current demands for higher quality alpine cheese production. The alpine dairy farms then established still influence the appearance of the cultural landscape in the Gailtal today. One of these dairy farms, which is a member of the Association of the Gailtal alpine farming community, is the Egger Alm. Here, you can watch the farmers at work and even participate in the production of the famous Gailtal alpine cheese. Next to the Egger Alm, Via Alpina then moves on to other alpine farms in the association, such as the Watschiger Alm, the Treßdorfer Alm, the Rudnig Alm, the Rattenforfer Alm, the Kleinkordinalm and the Straniger Alm. All of these farms produce milk, butter and cheese directly on location and make an important contribution to the preservation of the cultural landscape.
(Christina Schwann, OeAV)