Winterwandern in Wildermieming
17 December 2024
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Post originally written in: Deutsch Information An automatic machine translation. Super fast and almost perfect.

There is probably no other Tyrolean town with a more exotic name: Affenhausen. It has always impressed me. Reason enough to get to the bottom of it. First of all: anyone who thinks that brave climbing animals once escaped from a circus here is mistaken. The name has absolutely nothing to do with our fur-covered relatives from the primate kingdom.

The linguistic foundations of this place name - by the way, Affenhausen is part of the municipality of Wildermieming and is located at the eastern entrance to the Mieminger Plateau - can be found deep in the history of Tyrol. An indication of its origins can be found in the Urbarium of the monastery Stams. In the monastery's property documents from the 14th century, „Affenhusen“ and „Aeffenhusen“ are mentioned twice.

While the renowned historian Irmtraut Heitmeier in her truly monumental work Das Inntal‘ suggests that the name could go back to a personal name 'Afo‘, I think the second variant is more likely. It is generally assumed that the name goes back to the saint Afra. Which seems conclusive to me.

The saint who ran a brothel

Born in Cyprus around 280 AD, the alleged daughter of a king, Afra, opened a brothel - it's hard to believe - after fleeing from Cyprus via Rome to Augsburg. The persecution of Christians was still very popular with the Romans at the time under Emperor Diocletian, when the young woman offered a bishop named Narcissus shelter in her house. She was deeply impressed by Christianity, closed her house of pleasure and was baptized. As she openly professed the new religion, she was presumably beheaded on an island on the Lech river around 304 AD. A church was built over her grave in the 6th century. Her remains were ceremoniously exhumed in 1064 and today rest in the crypt of the Basilika St. Ulrich und Afra in Augsburg.

Afra is the patron saint of carters

So we are getting closer to the name Affenhausen. The martyr Afra is venerated as a saint in both the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches and is commemorated on August 7. She is considered the patron saint of carters, penitents, poor souls and repentant prostitutes. The connection to carters is particularly relevant, as she is traditionally regarded as the protector of travelers and their loads. Her intercession is also invoked by devout Catholics in cases of fire.

The list of patronages of St. Afra is quite striking: it reflects some of the stages of this former king's daughter's journey through life. Her journey from Cyprus to Augsburg, her work as the head of a house of pleasure, including her repentant conversion and eventual conversion to Christianity are direct references.

If we now consider the geographical location of ‚Affenhausen‘, it seems logical that Afra is the basis of the name. After all, the town was located on the important 'Via Decia ' of the Romans, a connecting road between Zirl and Via Claudia Augusta in Nassereith. Since its fortification in the 3rd century AD under Emperor Decius, the road has lost none of its importance to this day. In addition, a milestone found on the Holzleitensattel at 1,119 m above sea level is the last surviving evidence of the Roman road construction of the past.

In any case, it makes sense to me that St. Afra was invoked by carters and travelers to ask for safe passage after crossing the Inn at Pfaffenhofen and the ascent from today's Telfs to the Mieminger Plateau. This explains why the chapel at Affenhausen is dedicated to St. Afra.

The Bavarians brought St. Afra with them

But how, historically interested readers of this blog will ask me, did St. Afra come to the Mieminger Plateau in the first place? The answer is relatively simple: in the 5th and 6th centuries, Bavarian nobles began to establish themselves in Tyrol. They did so with the intention of securing and, above all, shortening their route to the Upper Italian region. An area that was disputed between the Lombards, Franks and Bavarians at the time of the so-called 'migration of peoples'. Today's place names ending in -ing, such as Flaurling, Inzing, Polling, Mieming or Wildermieming, also date from this period. However, places with the ending -hausen, such as Affenhausen or Umhausen, also point to Bavarian word roots.

In addition, the memory of the martyrdom of Afra in Augsburg was still relatively fresh at the time of the Bavarian colonization of North Tyrolean territories. I assume that the new settlers wanted to prove their faithfulness with a 'saint of their own'. And no one was better suited for this on a thoroughfare than the saint Afra.

The fact that ‚Afrahausen‘ eventually became Affenhausen is by no means unusual. The spellings in the Middle Ages were constantly changing, as can be seen from the different names in the urbarium of Stams. The name of the municipality of Wildermieming, to which Affenhausen belongs, also dates back to the 'Bavarian period': it combines the personal name 'Wiliram' with the original 'Wilramingin', mentioned in the years 1163-1167 in a traditional note from the monastery Wessobrunn. For a long time it referred to a settlement of Wiliram and was later changed to 'wild'. The final point was the adaptation to the name of the neighboring village of Mieming.

Winter hiking and crib hostel

In these modern times, Wildermieming and Affenhausen are attracting attention in other sectors. A very special circumstance makes the municipality known far beyond the borders of Tyrol every year at Christmas time: the crib hostel in Wildermieming-Affenhausen. It is open on Sundays between December 15, 2024 and February 2, 2025 between 13:00 and 17:00.

The second winter attraction of the village is the now trendy 'winter hiking' or relaxed cross-country skiing. Past the 'Bergdoktorhaus', known from a popular TV series, more and more people are seeking relaxation in the peace and seclusion of this wonderful landscape.

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