16
COR
ONE 2019
NEW AND APPROVED News from the region
Secrets of… a Cartographer
Hans Kammerer from Bressanone/ Brixen has drawn topographic and thematic maps as well as panoramic maps for more than thirty years. The 86-year-old is a self-taught mapmaker and a true pioneer of his trade.
“I’VE BEEN interested in cartography since I was ten years old, and I’ve been gradually teaching myself ever since. The first maps I ever held in my hand were from the post-war era—with a 1:100,000 scale. And while they were good, I wanted more detail. I drew my first 1:25,000-scale topographic map by hand in 1960, using pen and ink and tempera. Nowadays we have software for that, of course. I’ve worked with computers for 30 years, and I’ve witnessed the entire technical evolution first-hand. I did not make a living from cartography until the 1990s. Until then, I had my tobacco shop and newsagent’s
B is for… Birmehl “BIR” is South Tyrolean for “pear”. In Verdignes/Verdings, the pear trees grow right in the middle of the village. Birmehl—pear flour—used to be an affordable alternative to sugar for the farmers of Verdignes. Producing this sweetening agent was a complicated, tedious process: the pears were dried and then ground into pear flour. While “Birmehldorf” (“pear flour
T H E L O C A L M AG A Z I N E
village”) used to be a somewhat derisive moniker for Verdignes, the locals today are proud to revive that tradition. They have even dedicated a themed trail and a festival to it: during the pear flour autumn festival, Birmehlherbst, their inns and Buschenschank taverns give the typical South Tyrolean dishes a touch of sweetness using pear flour.
in the old town of Bressanone. I made new contacts, learned a lot about maps, and I worked in trail management for the Alpine Club for 40 years. When my first major commission arrived, I checked each position in person and walked a lot of trails myself. I roamed the mountains of South Tyrol and beyond for decades, all in the name of cartography. These days I draw panoramic maps in Photoshop, with the help of Google Maps images. By now everything has been surveyed by GPS.”
