Waidbruck is a comune (municipality) in South Tyrol in northern Italy, located about 20 km northeast of Bolzano.

Geography

As of November 30, 2010, it had a population of 192 and an area of 2.3 km2. Waidbruck borders the following municipalities: Barbian, Kastelruth and Lajen.

History

Place name

An archaic form of the comune's name, Waidepruk (1264), reveals its origins from Old High German. Waid means "meadow" and pruk means "bridge". The Italian name, "Ponte Gardena", has only been created during the Italianization process carried out by the Italian Fascism.

Coat-of-arms

The emblem symbolizes the bridge; argent a fess nebuly gules on azure that indicates the Eisack river. The reason comes from the gules and argent insignia of the counts of Wolkenstein, owners of the local Trostburg Castle since 1385. The emblem was adopted in 1969.

Society

Linguistic distribution

According to the 2011 census, 81.40% of the population speak German, 13.37% Italian and 5.23% Ladin as first language.

Demographic evolution