Luserna

For the comune in the Piedmont region of Italy, see Luserna San Giovanni.

Luserna (Cimbrian: Lusérn, German: Lusern) is a comune (municipality) in Trentino in the northern Italian region Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, located about 40 kilometres (25 mi) southeast of Trento. As 2021, it had a population of 271 and an area of 8.2 square kilometres (3.2 sq mi).^[3]

Luserna Lusérn
Comune
Kamou vo Lusérn Gemeinde von Lusern Comune di Luserna
Square in Lusérn
Coat of arms
Location of Luserna
Luserna Location of Luserna in Italy Show map of Italy Luserna Luserna (Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol) Show map of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol
Coordinates: 45°55′N 11°19′E
Country	Italy
Region	Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol
Province	Trentino (TN)
Government
• Mayor	Nerio Giovanazzi (Special Commissioner)
Area [1]
• Total	8.2 km2 (3.2 sq mi)
Elevation	1,333 m (4,373 ft)
Population  (31 December 2021)[2]
• Total	271
• Density	33/km2 (86/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code	38040
Dialing code	0464
Website	Official website

Luserna is part of the Magnificent Community of the Cimbrian Highlands (Altipiani Cimbri) together with the municipalities of Lavarone and Folgaria. In the tourist sphere it is part of the Alpe Cimbra. It is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia ("The most beautiful villages of Italy").^[4]

Lusérn borders the following municipalities: Caldonazzo, Lavarone, Levico Terme, Pedemonte, Rotzo and Valdastico.

Cimbrian culture and language

Luserna seen from Forte Belvedere Gschwent

Bilingual signs in both Italian and German

Lusérn is the centre of Cimbrian language and culture. In the 2021 census, around 68,8% of the people of Lusérn stated Cimbrian, an Upper German dialect of the Germanic language, to be their first language.^[5]

The Cimbrian spoken in Lusérn is a slightly different dialect from Cimbrian spoken elsewhere.^[6]

Cimbrian	German	English
Lusérn iz a khlummaz lånt vo perge, obar in Astetal. 'Z iz daz lest lånt, boma no redet azpe biar. [7]	Lusern ist ein kleines Bergdorf, oberhalb des Val d'Astico. Es ist das letzte Dorf, in dem Zimbrisch gesprochen wird (als wie wir).	Lusern is a small mountain village, above the Val d'Astico. It is the last village, where Cimbrian is spoken (als wie wir).

Point of interest

The village of Luserna has seven restaurants and one little hotel, four museums (one of them is an old Austrian's Fortress) and four thematic trails that tell Cimbrian legends and stories. They are passable by families and mountain bikes, and in winter they become paths suitable for snowshoeing.^[8]

Story

Luserna was founded around the year 1400 from Bavarians populations coming from nearby Lavarone who decided to stay and live here. In 1780 Luserna became independent from Lavarone. Until 1918 it was included in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, precisely in the County of Tyrol. During the last years of the 1800s it became famous for its tradition of bobbin lace and thanks to the Austrian administration, it had both German and Italian schools.

After the annexation to the Kingdom of Italy and with the advent of fascism, the people of Luserna were forbidden to speak Cimbro. This is because one of the dogmas of fascism was to Italianize every village and culture. This caused the phenomenon of the Options, an agreement between the Third Reich and the Kingdom of Italy to distribute the Mochen, Cimbrian and German populations who had lived for millennia in the ancient county of Tyrol, which later became the region of Venice Tridentine.

After the Second World War, thanks to the Gruber–De Gasperi Agreement, the Cimbrian linguistic minority of Luserna became part of the autonomy basis of the Autonomous Province of Trento and the Trentino - South Tyrol Region. In 1987 the Mocheno Cimbro Institute was founded and in 2001 the Cimbrian language was officially recognized within the regulations for the protection of Trentino linguistic minorities. In 2008, provincial legislation was implemented to protect the Ladin, Mochena and Cimbrian linguistic minorities settled in the Autonomous Province of Trento. Thanks to it, the Cimbrian community of Luserna now enjoys one of the most complete regulations in Europe. ^[9]

Demographic evolution