KLANG 2

Activities and purpose

The project

This proposal builds on and completes the project “KLANG. Swords of Lions and Eagles” (ITAT2039), carried out under the 2014–2020 programme. This second project aims to complete the study of bladed weapon production in the Alpine region, analysing sword-making in the Feltre area, the extraction of iron ore from mines in Tyrol, the Upper Belluno area and South Tyrol, and the research and study of the sites where smelting furnaces were located, focusing in particular on the period between the Late Middle Ages and the 17th century. The aim is to conclude the cultural-tourism itinerary begun with the first project, thereby linking all three Italian areas (Belluno-Veneto, Maniago-Friuli and Bolzano-South Tyrol) where the ore was extracted and processed into swords, in close commercial, historical and social ties with the Austrian Tyrol, from which the miners who worked in the mines came and to which the iron and finished products were transported. Archival research and studies of the production sites, as well as scientific analyses of the materials, will form the basis of the itinerary, thus creating an interdisciplinary journey that brings together history and cultural heritage, science and technology.