Winter Sports Guide_en

A mountain, a river and numerous fi r trees: How Lech got its name
It is a well-known fact that the Walser – please see page 70 for
more information about their language – settled in the Arlberg
region (see story on page 76). For 600 years – from its founding in
the 13th century until the 19th century – the community was
known by a very different name: Tannberg or, for greater geographical
precision, Tannberg on the Lech after the picturesque stream
that flows through it. (Which, by the way, flows into the Danube
and not the Rhine since the Arlberg is also a major water divide…)
At some point people apparently got tired of always saying
Tannberg on the Lech for such a small village so that Lech eventually
gained the upper hand.There are several theories for the
origin of this name: Perhaps from the Latin word licus or the Celtic
lik (which mean fast-flowing or immensely wealthy, both of which
apply). Really smart people purport to know that the name is
actually much older, originating from the Paleobasque word leg
which means rock, rubble and is said to have entered ancient
Indo-Germanic as a loan word before infiltrating the Celtic and
then the Latin language. But this much appears certain regardless:
There was no skiing on the Arlberg back then, while the rocks
after which the river is likely named were there long before the
Celts and Romans and are still here today. Tannberg certainly was
small but yet important enough that a parish church was built
here back in the 14th century – St. Nicholas. It was also remote
enough to establish its own court which was not dissolved until
1806. Skiing was invented here almost exactly 100 years later. But by
that time Lech already had its current name, which it will likely
keep for much longer. A reference to the former name can still be
found on the community crest: The classic symbol of the Bregenzerwald
communities, a black fir tree, appears on the black Dreiberg.
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