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History of Merano

Merano is an ancient city of Roman times, known as "Statio Maiensis' (“station”, “borderland Maia”).

Due to its strategic location, the village became an important merchant town, and in the thirteenth century Merano became  the capital of County, and the seat of a famous Mint. In the second half of the fourteenth century, the Habsburgs-Tyrol moved the ducal seat to Innsbruck , and this coincided with a period of decline of the city, exacerbated by the floods that affected it several times.

A major urban transformation was carried out in the nineteenth century; however, the works not compromised the old city, the centre of which is the ideal Gothic cathedral, dedicated to St. Nicholas. The mild climate, clean air and the presence of mineral springs antiquity caused that this area was known and appreciated for its natural characteristics.

The tourist activity, linked above all to the thermal baths, began in the early nineteenth century. The mineral water, which flows from Mount St. Virgil, and that is the basis of thermal treatments applied in Merano, has therapeutic qualities for the osteo-arthritis and many pathologies of the osteo-muscular apparatus.

Etymology

They told that, in the Later Middle Ages, the city was also known with the name of "Castrum Maiense", located in "Maia, près de Meran" [“Maia, near Merano”] (See Louise Fresco, “Le Haute Adige-Tyrol de Sud” , Editions des Cahiers de l'Alpe" 1988:110). Merano is attested in some documents only by 857 AD, under the names "Mairania", "Mairanio", "Mairani" and finally "Merano" (1251). In the early Middle Ages it belonged to the Counts of Venosta, who became then Counts of Tyrol, who referred to the Bishop of Trent. As regards the etymology, there is substantial agreement among scholars, for whom the name derives from the family name "Marius", accompanied by the suffix “-anum”, indicating the property. In conclusion, Meran would mean "place belonging to Marius" (See P. Passarelli, “The Towns of Italy”, Trentino Alto Adige, Italian Encyclopedic Institute, 2007: 74)

Also for  Johannes Kramer (“Sive Padi ripis Athesis”, Busche-Verlag, 1991: 295), who in turn refers to GB Pellegrini,  Merano derives from “Marius + anum”. Other scholars, on the basis of the studies of Schneller (“Tirolische Namenforschungen”[ “Research about the names of Tyrol”], 1890: 96 ff.), suggested, instead, the hypothesis that the place-name of Merano has its roots within the Pre-Latin term "Marra" or "heap of stones" or "Mara" ("stream"). But the proposal of Schneller was described as "unsafe" by Carlo Battisti (See, “Miscellanea di studi linguistici in onore di E. Tolomei”, Olschki, 1953: 94).

An interesting hypothesis was formulated in the nineteenth century by Alber Gatschet (“Ortsetymologische Forschungen” [“Etymological Research about Places”], Haller, 1867: 304), who observed that the name “Merano”, for a series of the name transformations  would mean "shepherds huts": "[...] Meran, stadt in Sudtyrol (''in valle tridentina in loco qui dicitur 'Mairania' 857, (...) 'Villam que vocatur Magelisis', 933 Hist. Patr., Mon. II, § 50 (...) den Ausdruck 'magalia' erklart Ducange durch ' tuguria seu domus pastorum '”; or “Merano, a city of South Tyrol ( located in the Trentino valley called 'Magelisis'). L 'expression "Magalia", according to Du Cange, is explained as ' shepherds huts'”].