The search for the pre-Christian origins of the pilgrimage tradition in the Julian Alps develops into a detective journey into a hitherto unexplored, mythical, distant past.

Starting from the Luschari Mountain in the Channel Valley, the area of origin of the Indo-Europeans north of the Caucasus and the sacred mountains of the Eurasian region, forgotten experiences of nature, myths and legends are deciphered.

Back in the imposing Julian massif, you will discover the mysterious world of a fascinating natural religion that has been rediscovered and whose ideas have shaped people's spiritual beliefs and rituals.
Welcome to the "light-flooded mountain"!

• Book: 232 pages, text with 186 illustrations and 16 maps
• Author: Helmut Tributsch
• Language: German
• Format: 21.6 x 27.6 cm, approx. 1236 g
• With hard cover and ribbon marker
• ISBN: 978-3-903274-01-3

• The thematic journey of the book / Myth and natural religion of the sacred mountains

  • The search for the natural origins of sacred mountains begins with the well-known pilgrimage tradition to the Luschari mountain in the Kanaltal.
  • The journey leads to Mount Elbrus in the Caucasus, the original home of the settlers of the Julian Alps.
  • Atmospheric phenomena give rise to the idea of the mountain of the gods with its connection to the universe.
  • The mythical world mountain Meru takes on earthly forms as Mount Elbrus (tree cone), symbolising fertility.
  • The invasion and expansion of the Indo-Europeans leads to the fall of the megalithic empire in Western Europe, which is described in the traditional Atlantis legend.
  • The sun god lived above the sacred mountain, the Mangart in the Julian Alps. Pilgrims sacrificed to him at watersheds and ritual sites such as the Luschari mountain.
  • The oldest names of the rivers Fella, Isonzo, Save, Gailitz/Gail flowing from it refer to the sun god above the Mangart.
  • Unsolved historical mysteries find an answer - the Celtic Noreia, the tumuli of the Noric Alps, the Via Belloio and the place name of Villach.
  • A pilgrimage route, a mandala around the mountain of the gods Mangart, which is comparable to the one around Mount Kailash in Tibet, is being reconstructed.
  • Mirages provided the motif, characterised by nature, for the creation of the Trinity and the inverted, otherworldly world.
  • With a threefold deity, a sacrificing God and a Mother of God, Christianity carries on essential symbols of the ancient belief in nature.

To the author:
Helmut Tributsch grew up in San Leopoldo (Leopoldskirchen), Kanaltal (Italy), within sight of the Luschari mountain. The legend and the spiritual background of this place of pilgrimage in its breathtaking mountain landscape have moved him since childhood. After a working life as a scientist and university professor in the wide world, he returned to his home farmhouse. Now he found the time and felt experienced enough to get to the bottom of the myth of a sacred mountain. www.helmut-tributsch.it