The traditional mountain sheep reared for hundreds of years in the Alpine region of southern Carinthia were of the primitive Zaupelschaf type, similar to the Tiroler Steinschaf.:290 They were frugal and hardy, and well adapted to the steep slopes and sparse pasture of the mountains, but yielded little meat and wool of coarse quality. During the eighteenth century, when wool production was the most important attribute of sheep, rams of the now-extinct Padovana breed, known for the fine quality of its wool, were brought from the Italian peninsula and cross-bred with the local ewes. The first description of the resulting breed dates from 1844. By 1880, breeding was mainly concentrated in the area round Seeland (now Jezersko, in Slovenia), and it was for this reason known as the . From there, the breed spread widely, throughout Carinthia, through much of Austria-Hungary, and into the Bavarian Alps. The meat was in demand, and many animals were sent to Paris and to Switzerland for slaughter.