Great St. Bernard Pass
Encyclopedia
Great St. Bernard Pass (el. 2469 m.) is the third highest road pass
in Switzerland
. It connects Martigny in the Canton
of Valais
in Switzerland to Aosta
in Italy
. It is the lowest pass lying on the ridge between the two highest summits of the Alps
, Mont Blanc
and Monte Rosa
. The pass itself is located in Switzerland in the canton of Valais, very close to Italy. It is located on the main watershed
that separates the basin of the Rhone
from that of the Po.
Great St. Bernard is the most ancient pass through the Western Alps, with evidence of use as far back as the Bronze Age
and surviving traces of a Roman road
. In 1800, Napoleon's army used the pass to enter Italy, an event depicted in Jacques-Louis David
's Napoleon at the Saint-Bernard Pass and Hippolyte Delaroche
's Bonaparte Crossing the Alps
, both notable oil paintings. Having been bypassed by easier and more practical routes, particularly the Great St Bernard Tunnel
which opened in 1964, its value today is mainly historical and recreational.
Straddling the highest point of the road, the Great St Bernard Hospice
was founded in 1049. The hospice later became famous for its use of St. Bernard dogs
in rescue operations.
and Switzerland
, joins Martigny on the upper Rhone river
in the canton of Valais
, Switzerland, to Aosta
in the Aosta Valley region of Italy. From Martigny Route 9 descends to Lausanne
and from Aosta Route A5 descends to Torino.
From the north (Switzerland
), the route to the pass follows the Dranse River valley above Martigny
, then into the wild and desolate valley of the Dranse d'Entremont. The Great St Bernard Tunnel
(and the main road) plunges through the mountains at the 1915 m (6,283 ft) level, reducing, since the tunnel's opening in 1964, the commercial relevance of the road over the pass. A reduction of utility began after the construction of the Simplon Tunnel
, strictly a railway tunnel, 100 km (62.1 mi) to the east in 1905. The much smaller historic road winding over the pass itself, which lies a few hundred metres from the Swiss border with Italy
, is only passable June to September. On the south side of the pass, the Great St Bernard Valley is drained by the Artanavaz River, which runs down to Aosta
.
The pass at narrowest point runs between the peaks of Grande Chenalette at 2889 m (9,478.3 ft) and Mont Mort at 2867 m (9,406.2 ft). Slightly to the west in Pointe de Drône
at 2949 m (9,675.2 ft), the highest peak. Between it and the pass is Petite Chenalette at 2885 m (9,465.2 ft).
, the Lac du Col du Grand-Saint-Bernard, which captures melt water and does not support fish, even though attempts have been made to stock it. In past years the tarn has not always thawed completely in summer.
Alpine flowers are abundant in the vicinity: Gentiana clusii
, Ranunculus glacialis
, Dryas octopetala
, Forget-me-not
, Saxifraga oppositifolia among many hundreds more. Moss
is prolific and the rocks are lichen-covered.
A hospice
for travellers was founded in 1049 by Saint Bernard of Menthon
and came to be named after him in the 16th century, along with the pass. It was not the first hospice in the pass. Buildings were probably there since the Roman mansio, but the region was not secure and they were destroyed many times. The first concern of the founder of the current monastery was to clear the region of bandits and keep the pass safe for travellers, the role of rescuers developing naturally. The hospice later became famous for its use of St. Bernard dogs
in rescue operations. Pope Pius XI
confirmed Bernard as patron saint of the Alps in 1923.
The hospice straddles the highest point of the road, which is in Switzerland. Today the modern road for through traffic has been routed around the outside of the monastery buildings to allow some integrity of the grounds. The old road may still be seen, above the paved road. The hospice occupies two buildings, of 1560 and 1898 (picture, right). The Congregation of Canons of the Great Saint Bernard (the monks) also owns the Hôtel de l'Hospice du Grand-St-Bernard, a four-story building made of grey stone (built in 1899) on the Italian side, which it leases to a private entrepreneur for the provision of hotel services.
The St. Bernards
were bred large enough to traverse deep snow and to scent out lost persons. The first evidence that the dogs were in use at the monastery is two paintings dating to 1690 by Salvatore Rosa. It is often said that they carried small casks of brandy
around their necks (although this is only legend), in the belief that the liquor had medicinal properties. (In reality, the effect would have been more psychological than physiological, as alcohol increases the rate of heat loss in people suffering from hypothermia
.)
Today the tunnel and modern technology have made rescue operations at the pass mainly unnecessary. The dogs were put up for sale in 2004 because of the high cost of maintenance and were promptly bought by two foundations created for the purpose: Barry (major contributor Christine Cerletti-Sarasin) and Fondation Bernard et Caroline de Watteville. Barry bought the kennels and the facilities in Martigny and continues to support and breed the dogs (three or four dozen). One condition of the sale is that they be brought to the monastery for the summer. Travellers are likely to see them romping around the slopes. The de Watteville Foundation keeps several dogs in kennels adjunct to its Musée. Both have agreed to work together and others have joined the partnership.
The monastery currently houses a handful of monks on a permanent basis and serves as a spiritual center for others on retreat.
.jpg)
and Lingones
in the invasion of Italy of 390 BC. The classical authors first mentioning the pass in that or other contexts lived the 1st century BC under the early Roman empire
. They were calling the pass and the mountains Poeninus or Poenini, "Punic", an apparent reference to Hannibal's crossing. He did not cross there, however. On the presumption that the name was falsely altered by analogy, it can be reconstructed to *peninus, a Roman-Celtic word, considering that Celtic tribes owned the entire pass until defeated by the Romans. Livy says that the pass was not named after the Carthaginians but after a mountain god. For well over a century scholars such as the Grimm brothers have made a connection with continental Celtic pen or ben, "head, summit, chief" on an analogy with the Zeus karaios of Hesychius
.
Two tribes occupied the valleys on either side of the pass on a permanent basis: the Veragri
on the Swiss side and the Salassi
on the Italian side.
sent an expedition under his best commander, Servius Galba
, from Gaul in 57 BC to seize the pass, hoping to obtain a shorter route between Italy and Gaul than the contemporaneous coastal route. Galba was deceived by the Veragri into making camp near Martigny with the expectation of moving into the pass on the next day. At that time the Romans found the heights over the trail occupied by three hostile Gallic tribes. The Romans won a local victory by a daring foray from the camp but Galba judged he could not take the pass and departed.
Augustus
succeeded where his adoptive father failed and the pass became Roman. Augustus placed a large castra
stativa and colony, Augusta Praetoria Salassorum, below the pass, which became Aosta
(contraction of Augusta). Its ruins are a historic attraction there. By 43 AD under the emperor Claudius
a good Roman road through the pass was completed with a mansio
at the top and a temple to Jupiter Poeninus, resulting in the name Mons Jovis in late antiquity, Monte Jove in the early Italian period and Mont Joux in the French period, a synonym for the pass. The site of the temple is known as the Plan de Jupiter, located on a knoll on the Italian side of the pass. A cross was placed there in 1816 bearing the inscription Deo optimo maximo, "to the best and greatest god." The bronze statue of St. Bernard on a pedestal above the road on the Italian side, across a small valley from the cross, was constructed in 1905 on the site of the Roman mansio.
The coins and votive tablets found at the site of the temple roughly date the upper limit of Roman control of the pass. The youngest date to the reign of Theodosius II
(1st half of the 5th century). These and other artifacts are stored in the monastery museum. Fragments of the marble temple, some with inscriptions, have been incorporated into many structures of the village of Bourg-Saint-Pierre
on the Swiss side of the pass. The Roman milestone for mile XXIII was also brought to the center of the settlement from the top of the pass.
The pass had entered history with the Gallic invasion of 390 BC. The last Gallic invasion over it occurred in May, 1800, under the direction of the 30-year-old First Consul of the French Republic
, Napoleon Bonaparte. An Austria
n army of 140,000 men had laid siege to French-occupied Genoa
on the west coast of northern Italy. Napoleon traversed the pass with 40,000 men and 1/3 of their heavy artillery sending another 20,000 over three other passes as a diversion, intending to strike the Austrian rear. The panicked Austrians were unable to assemble fast enough to meet the French en masse but rather in a piecemeal way in June 1800, and so were defeated first at the Battle of Montebello
and then at the Battle of Marengo.
Napoleon prepared for the march secretly by assembling men in small units below the pass, establishing supply dumps along the lower part of their route, and hiring artisans to set up shop along it as well. On May 15 an advance unit went over the pass to take Aosta
, after which hospitals were set up at Martigny and Aosta. At Martigny the army assembled and received rations for three days. All the equipment - carriages, artillery, arms and ammunition - was disassembled and divided into packs of 60-70 pounds for the men to carry. The cannons were to be dragged up over the snow in hollowed-out pine half-logs by mules, and then when the mules died or were exhausted, by 100 soldiers and hired men each. Napoleon offered liberal monetary rewards to soldiers and laborers who could perform difficult portages in a timely fashion.
Over several days at the end of May the army went over the pass single-file, 6000 men per day. Bands played martial music along the route, with drum rolls at especially difficult places to alert the men. At the top the monks handed each man two glasses of wine and a slice of rye with cheese as he filed by (courtesy of the French army). Accounts of the amounts expended vary. On the other side the snow became so packed that the men slid down sitting. Napoleon was the last man over, sliding also. The good weather held for the entire crossing, which could easily have turned into a disaster, if it had not.
On the way up Napoleon had discussed affairs of the heart with his young guide and mule driver, Pierre Nicholas Dorsaz
, who did not know his identity. Offered a reward at the top, Dorsaz asked for the mule on which Napoleon was riding. He received the mule and a short note for the chief supply officer of the army. Versions of the story vary, but they all agree that when the young man had turned in the note and had drawn his ample pay for the work, he found that his companion was Napoleon and the latter had given him a house and farm so that he could marry his sweetheart.
In the Aosta Valley Napoleon's army slipped by an Austrian garrison at Bard just out of cannon range. The commander related that he was astonished to watch an army of 40,000 men in full equipment go marching past from the direction of the heights.
Mountain pass
A mountain pass is a route through a mountain range or over a ridge. If following the lowest possible route, a pass is locally the highest point on that route...
in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. It connects Martigny in the Canton
Cantons of Switzerland
The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the federal state of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereign state with its own borders, army and currency from the Treaty of Westphalia until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848...
of Valais
Valais
The Valais is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland in the southwestern part of the country, around the valley of the Rhône from its headwaters to Lake Geneva, separating the Pennine Alps from the Bernese Alps. The canton is one of the drier parts of Switzerland in its central Rhône valley...
in Switzerland to Aosta
Aosta
Aosta is the principal city of the bilingual Aosta Valley in the Italian Alps, north-northwest of Turin. It is situated near the Italian entrance of the Mont Blanc Tunnel, at the confluence of the Buthier and the Dora Baltea, and at the junction of the Great and Little St. Bernard routes...
in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. It is the lowest pass lying on the ridge between the two highest summits of the Alps
Alps
The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....
, Mont Blanc
Mont Blanc
Mont Blanc or Monte Bianco , meaning "White Mountain", is the highest mountain in the Alps, Western Europe and the European Union. It rises above sea level and is ranked 11th in the world in topographic prominence...
and Monte Rosa
Monte Rosa
The Monte Rosa Massif is a mountain massif located in the eastern part of the Pennine Alps. It is located between Switzerland and Italy...
. The pass itself is located in Switzerland in the canton of Valais, very close to Italy. It is located on the main watershed
Main chain of the Alps
The Alpine divide is the central line of mountains that forms the water divide of the range. Main chains of mountain ranges are traditionally designated in this way, and generally include the highest peaks of a range; the Alps are something of an unusual case in that several significant groups of...
that separates the basin of the Rhone
Rhône
Rhone can refer to:* Rhone, one of the major rivers of Europe, running through Switzerland and France* Rhône Glacier, the source of the Rhone River and one of the primary contributors to Lake Geneva in the far eastern end of the canton of Valais in Switzerland...
from that of the Po.
Great St. Bernard is the most ancient pass through the Western Alps, with evidence of use as far back as the Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
and surviving traces of a Roman road
Roman road
The Roman roads were a vital part of the development of the Roman state, from about 500 BC through the expansion during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Roman roads enabled the Romans to move armies and trade goods and to communicate. The Roman road system spanned more than 400,000 km...
. In 1800, Napoleon's army used the pass to enter Italy, an event depicted in Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David was an influential French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era...
's Napoleon at the Saint-Bernard Pass and Hippolyte Delaroche
Hippolyte Delaroche
Hippolyte Delaroche , commonly known as Paul Delaroche, was a French painter born in Paris. Delaroche was born into a wealthy family and was trained by Antoine-Jean, Baron Gros, who then painted life-size histories and had many students.The first Delaroche picture exhibited was the large Josabeth...
's Bonaparte Crossing the Alps
Bonaparte Crossing the Alps
Bonaparte Crossing the Alps is an 1848–1850 oil-on-canvas portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte, by French artist Hippolyte Delaroche...
, both notable oil paintings. Having been bypassed by easier and more practical routes, particularly the Great St Bernard Tunnel
Great St Bernard Tunnel
The Great St Bernard Tunnel is a road tunnel complementing the Great St Bernard Pass, linking Martigny with Saint-Rhémy-en-Bosses ....
which opened in 1964, its value today is mainly historical and recreational.
Straddling the highest point of the road, the Great St Bernard Hospice
Great St Bernard Hospice
The Great St Bernard Hospice is a hospice or hostel for travellers in Switzerland, at 2469m altitude at the Great St Bernard Pass in the Pennine Alps. The frontier with Italy is only a few hundred metres to the south.-History:...
was founded in 1049. The hospice later became famous for its use of St. Bernard dogs
St. Bernard (dog)
The St. Bernard is a breed of very large working dog from the Italian and Swiss Alps, originally bred for rescue. The breed has become famous through tales of alpine rescues, as well as for its large size.-Appearance:The St. Bernard is a large dog...
in rescue operations.
Route
The pass runs northeast-southwest through the Valais Alps (formerly known as the Pennine Alps after the Roman name for the pass, poeninus mons or summus poeninus) at a maximum elevation of 2469 m (8,100 ft). The road running through the pass, highway E27 in both ItalyItaly
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, joins Martigny on the upper Rhone river
Rhône River
The Rhone is one of the major rivers of Europe, rising in Switzerland and running from there through southeastern France. At Arles, near its mouth on the Mediterranean Sea, the river divides into two branches, known as the Great Rhone and the Little Rhone...
in the canton of Valais
Valais
The Valais is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland in the southwestern part of the country, around the valley of the Rhône from its headwaters to Lake Geneva, separating the Pennine Alps from the Bernese Alps. The canton is one of the drier parts of Switzerland in its central Rhône valley...
, Switzerland, to Aosta
Aosta
Aosta is the principal city of the bilingual Aosta Valley in the Italian Alps, north-northwest of Turin. It is situated near the Italian entrance of the Mont Blanc Tunnel, at the confluence of the Buthier and the Dora Baltea, and at the junction of the Great and Little St. Bernard routes...
in the Aosta Valley region of Italy. From Martigny Route 9 descends to Lausanne
Lausanne
Lausanne is a city in Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and is the capital of the canton of Vaud. The seat of the district of Lausanne, the city is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva . It faces the French town of Évian-les-Bains, with the Jura mountains to its north-west...
and from Aosta Route A5 descends to Torino.
From the north (Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
), the route to the pass follows the Dranse River valley above Martigny
Martigny, Switzerland
Martigny is the capital of the French-speaking district of Martigny in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It lies at an elevation of , and its population is approximately 15000 inhabitants . It is a junction of roads joining Italy, France and Switzerland...
, then into the wild and desolate valley of the Dranse d'Entremont. The Great St Bernard Tunnel
Great St Bernard Tunnel
The Great St Bernard Tunnel is a road tunnel complementing the Great St Bernard Pass, linking Martigny with Saint-Rhémy-en-Bosses ....
(and the main road) plunges through the mountains at the 1915 m (6,283 ft) level, reducing, since the tunnel's opening in 1964, the commercial relevance of the road over the pass. A reduction of utility began after the construction of the Simplon Tunnel
Simplon Tunnel
The Simplon Tunnel is an Alpine railway tunnel that connects the Swiss town of Brig with Domodossola in Italy, though its relatively straight trajectory does not run under Simplon Pass itself. It actually consists of two single-track tunnels built nearly 20 years apart...
, strictly a railway tunnel, 100 km (62.1 mi) to the east in 1905. The much smaller historic road winding over the pass itself, which lies a few hundred metres from the Swiss border with Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, is only passable June to September. On the south side of the pass, the Great St Bernard Valley is drained by the Artanavaz River, which runs down to Aosta
Aosta
Aosta is the principal city of the bilingual Aosta Valley in the Italian Alps, north-northwest of Turin. It is situated near the Italian entrance of the Mont Blanc Tunnel, at the confluence of the Buthier and the Dora Baltea, and at the junction of the Great and Little St. Bernard routes...
.
The pass at narrowest point runs between the peaks of Grande Chenalette at 2889 m (9,478.3 ft) and Mont Mort at 2867 m (9,406.2 ft). Slightly to the west in Pointe de Drône
Pointe de Drône
The Pointe de Drône is a mountain in the Pennine Alps on the Swiss-Italian border.-External links:*...
at 2949 m (9,675.2 ft), the highest peak. Between it and the pass is Petite Chenalette at 2885 m (9,465.2 ft).
Weather
The snow in the pass in winter may be as much as 10 metres deep. The temperature may drop as low as -30°C. The lake in the pass is frozen for 265 days per year. A summary of weather data for the year 2008-2009 is given below.Ecology
The pass is well above the tree line. All the wood required for construction and firewood must be hauled in from some distance. The center of the pass is occupied by a small tarnTarn (lake)
A tarn is a mountain lake or pool, formed in a cirque excavated by a glacier. A moraine may form a natural dam below a tarn. A corrie may be called a cirque.The word is derived from the Old Norse word tjörn meaning pond...
, the Lac du Col du Grand-Saint-Bernard, which captures melt water and does not support fish, even though attempts have been made to stock it. In past years the tarn has not always thawed completely in summer.
Alpine flowers are abundant in the vicinity: Gentiana clusii
Gentiana clusii
Gentiana clusii is a large-flowered, short-stemmed gentian, which is very similar to G. acaulis. The two species differ in the presence or absence of green stripes inside the corolla, by the shape of the corners between the petals Gentiana clusii (sometimes called "Clusius' gentian") is a...
, Ranunculus glacialis
Ranunculus glacialis
Ranunculus glacialis, the glacier crowfoot or glacier buttercup, is a plant of the family Ranunculaceae.-Distribution:Ranunculus glacialis is an arctic-alpine species, found in the high mountains of southern Europe as well as on the Scandinavian peninsula, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Jan Mayen,...
, Dryas octopetala
Dryas octopetala
Dryas octopetala is an arctic-alpine flowering plant in the family Rosaceae. It is a small prostrate evergreen subshrub forming large colonies, and is a popular flower in rock gardens...
, Forget-me-not
Forget-me-not
Myosotis is a genus of flowering plants in the family Boraginaceae that are commonly called Forget-me-nots. Its common name was calqued from the French, "ne m'oubliez pas" and first used in English in c. 1532. Similar names and variations are found in many languages.-Description:There are...
, Saxifraga oppositifolia among many hundreds more. Moss
Moss
Mosses are small, soft plants that are typically 1–10 cm tall, though some species are much larger. They commonly grow close together in clumps or mats in damp or shady locations. They do not have flowers or seeds, and their simple leaves cover the thin wiry stems...
is prolific and the rocks are lichen-covered.
The hospice and the dogs
Great St Bernard Hospice
The Great St Bernard Hospice is a hospice or hostel for travellers in Switzerland, at 2469m altitude at the Great St Bernard Pass in the Pennine Alps. The frontier with Italy is only a few hundred metres to the south.-History:...
for travellers was founded in 1049 by Saint Bernard of Menthon
Bernard of Menthon
Saint Bernard of Menthon , Born in 923, probably in the Château de Menthon near Annecy, in Savoy; died at Novara, 1008. He was descended from a rich, noble family and received a thorough education. He refused an honorable marriage proposed by his father and decided to devote himself to the service...
and came to be named after him in the 16th century, along with the pass. It was not the first hospice in the pass. Buildings were probably there since the Roman mansio, but the region was not secure and they were destroyed many times. The first concern of the founder of the current monastery was to clear the region of bandits and keep the pass safe for travellers, the role of rescuers developing naturally. The hospice later became famous for its use of St. Bernard dogs
St. Bernard (dog)
The St. Bernard is a breed of very large working dog from the Italian and Swiss Alps, originally bred for rescue. The breed has become famous through tales of alpine rescues, as well as for its large size.-Appearance:The St. Bernard is a large dog...
in rescue operations. Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI , born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, was Pope from 6 February 1922, and sovereign of Vatican City from its creation as an independent state on 11 February 1929 until his death on 10 February 1939...
confirmed Bernard as patron saint of the Alps in 1923.
The St. Bernards
St. Bernard (dog)
The St. Bernard is a breed of very large working dog from the Italian and Swiss Alps, originally bred for rescue. The breed has become famous through tales of alpine rescues, as well as for its large size.-Appearance:The St. Bernard is a large dog...
were bred large enough to traverse deep snow and to scent out lost persons. The first evidence that the dogs were in use at the monastery is two paintings dating to 1690 by Salvatore Rosa. It is often said that they carried small casks of brandy
Brandy
Brandy is a spirit produced by distilling wine. Brandy generally contains 35%–60% alcohol by volume and is typically taken as an after-dinner drink...
around their necks (although this is only legend), in the belief that the liquor had medicinal properties. (In reality, the effect would have been more psychological than physiological, as alcohol increases the rate of heat loss in people suffering from hypothermia
Hypothermia
Hypothermia is a condition in which core temperature drops below the required temperature for normal metabolism and body functions which is defined as . Body temperature is usually maintained near a constant level of through biologic homeostasis or thermoregulation...
.)
Today the tunnel and modern technology have made rescue operations at the pass mainly unnecessary. The dogs were put up for sale in 2004 because of the high cost of maintenance and were promptly bought by two foundations created for the purpose: Barry (major contributor Christine Cerletti-Sarasin) and Fondation Bernard et Caroline de Watteville. Barry bought the kennels and the facilities in Martigny and continues to support and breed the dogs (three or four dozen). One condition of the sale is that they be brought to the monastery for the summer. Travellers are likely to see them romping around the slopes. The de Watteville Foundation keeps several dogs in kennels adjunct to its Musée. Both have agreed to work together and others have joined the partnership.
The monastery currently houses a handful of monks on a permanent basis and serves as a spiritual center for others on retreat.
History
Celtic period
The pass first appears in history as the route taken by the Celtic tribes of the BoiiBoii
The Boii were one of the most prominent ancient Celtic tribes of the later Iron Age, attested at various times in Cisalpine Gaul , Pannonia , in and around Bohemia, and Transalpine Gaul...
and Lingones
Lingones
Lingones were a Celtic tribe that originally lived in Gaul in the area of the headwaters of the Seine and Marne rivers. Some of the Lingones migrated across the Alps and settled near the mouth of the Po River in Cisalpine Gaul of northern Italy around 400 BCE. These Lingones were part of a wave of...
in the invasion of Italy of 390 BC. The classical authors first mentioning the pass in that or other contexts lived the 1st century BC under the early Roman empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
. They were calling the pass and the mountains Poeninus or Poenini, "Punic", an apparent reference to Hannibal's crossing. He did not cross there, however. On the presumption that the name was falsely altered by analogy, it can be reconstructed to *peninus, a Roman-Celtic word, considering that Celtic tribes owned the entire pass until defeated by the Romans. Livy says that the pass was not named after the Carthaginians but after a mountain god. For well over a century scholars such as the Grimm brothers have made a connection with continental Celtic pen or ben, "head, summit, chief" on an analogy with the Zeus karaios of Hesychius
Hesychius
Hesychius , may refer to:*Hesychius of Alexandria, lexicographer*St. Hesychius of Cazorla, saint, martyr, and bishop*Hesychius of Jerusalem, presbyter and exegete*Hesychius of Sinai, hieromonk and Byzantine author*Hesychius of Antioch...
.
Two tribes occupied the valleys on either side of the pass on a permanent basis: the Veragri
Veragri
The Veragri were an ancient tribe located in present day Switzerland. The Veragri are placed by Julius Caesar in the canton of Valais between the Nantuates and the Seduni. Their chief town was Octodurus , whence the Veragri are called Octodurenses by Pliny. Dio Cassius The Veragri (Greek: ) were...
on the Swiss side and the Salassi
Salassi
The Salassi were an Alpine tribe whose lands lay on the Italian side of the Little St Bernard Pass across the Graian Alps to Lyons, and the Great St Bernard Pass over the Pennine Alps...
on the Italian side.
Roman period
Julius CaesarJulius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
sent an expedition under his best commander, Servius Galba
Servius Sulpicius Galba (praetor 54 BC)
Servius Sulpicius Galba, praetor in 54 BC.As legate of Julius Caesar's 12th Legion during his Gallic Wars, he was defeated by the Nantuates in 57 BC. Later, however, angered due to Caesar's opposition to his campaign for the consulship, he joined the conspiracy with Brutus and Cassius, and was...
, from Gaul in 57 BC to seize the pass, hoping to obtain a shorter route between Italy and Gaul than the contemporaneous coastal route. Galba was deceived by the Veragri into making camp near Martigny with the expectation of moving into the pass on the next day. At that time the Romans found the heights over the trail occupied by three hostile Gallic tribes. The Romans won a local victory by a daring foray from the camp but Galba judged he could not take the pass and departed.
Augustus
Augustus
Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...
succeeded where his adoptive father failed and the pass became Roman. Augustus placed a large castra
Castra
The Latin word castra, with its singular castrum, was used by the ancient Romans to mean buildings or plots of land reserved to or constructed for use as a military defensive position. The word appears in both Oscan and Umbrian as well as in Latin. It may have descended from Indo-European to Italic...
stativa and colony, Augusta Praetoria Salassorum, below the pass, which became Aosta
Aosta
Aosta is the principal city of the bilingual Aosta Valley in the Italian Alps, north-northwest of Turin. It is situated near the Italian entrance of the Mont Blanc Tunnel, at the confluence of the Buthier and the Dora Baltea, and at the junction of the Great and Little St. Bernard routes...
(contraction of Augusta). Its ruins are a historic attraction there. By 43 AD under the emperor Claudius
Claudius
Claudius , was Roman Emperor from 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, he was the son of Drusus and Antonia Minor. He was born at Lugdunum in Gaul and was the first Roman Emperor to be born outside Italy...
a good Roman road through the pass was completed with a mansio
Mansio
In the Roman Empire, a mansio was an official stopping place on a Roman road, or via, maintained by the central government for the use of officials and those on official business whilst travelling.-Background:The roads which traversed the Ancient World, were later surveyed,...
at the top and a temple to Jupiter Poeninus, resulting in the name Mons Jovis in late antiquity, Monte Jove in the early Italian period and Mont Joux in the French period, a synonym for the pass. The site of the temple is known as the Plan de Jupiter, located on a knoll on the Italian side of the pass. A cross was placed there in 1816 bearing the inscription Deo optimo maximo, "to the best and greatest god." The bronze statue of St. Bernard on a pedestal above the road on the Italian side, across a small valley from the cross, was constructed in 1905 on the site of the Roman mansio.
The coins and votive tablets found at the site of the temple roughly date the upper limit of Roman control of the pass. The youngest date to the reign of Theodosius II
Theodosius II
Theodosius II , commonly surnamed Theodosius the Younger, or Theodosius the Calligrapher, was Byzantine Emperor from 408 to 450. He is mostly known for promulgating the Theodosian law code, and for the construction of the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople...
(1st half of the 5th century). These and other artifacts are stored in the monastery museum. Fragments of the marble temple, some with inscriptions, have been incorporated into many structures of the village of Bourg-Saint-Pierre
Bourg-Saint-Pierre
Bourg-Saint-Pierre is a municipality in the district of Entremont in the canton of Valais in Switzerland.-Geography:...
on the Swiss side of the pass. The Roman milestone for mile XXIII was also brought to the center of the settlement from the top of the pass.
Napoleonic crossing
French First Republic
The French First Republic was founded on 22 September 1792, by the newly established National Convention. The First Republic lasted until the declaration of the First French Empire in 1804 under Napoleon I...
, Napoleon Bonaparte. An Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n army of 140,000 men had laid siege to French-occupied Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
on the west coast of northern Italy. Napoleon traversed the pass with 40,000 men and 1/3 of their heavy artillery sending another 20,000 over three other passes as a diversion, intending to strike the Austrian rear. The panicked Austrians were unable to assemble fast enough to meet the French en masse but rather in a piecemeal way in June 1800, and so were defeated first at the Battle of Montebello
Battle of Montebello (1800)
The Battle of Montebello was fought on 9 June 1800 near Montebello in Lombardy. During the lead-up to the Battle of Marengo, the vanguard of the French army in Italy engaged and defeated an Austrian force in a "glorious victory".-Background:...
and then at the Battle of Marengo.
Napoleon prepared for the march secretly by assembling men in small units below the pass, establishing supply dumps along the lower part of their route, and hiring artisans to set up shop along it as well. On May 15 an advance unit went over the pass to take Aosta
Aosta
Aosta is the principal city of the bilingual Aosta Valley in the Italian Alps, north-northwest of Turin. It is situated near the Italian entrance of the Mont Blanc Tunnel, at the confluence of the Buthier and the Dora Baltea, and at the junction of the Great and Little St. Bernard routes...
, after which hospitals were set up at Martigny and Aosta. At Martigny the army assembled and received rations for three days. All the equipment - carriages, artillery, arms and ammunition - was disassembled and divided into packs of 60-70 pounds for the men to carry. The cannons were to be dragged up over the snow in hollowed-out pine half-logs by mules, and then when the mules died or were exhausted, by 100 soldiers and hired men each. Napoleon offered liberal monetary rewards to soldiers and laborers who could perform difficult portages in a timely fashion.
Over several days at the end of May the army went over the pass single-file, 6000 men per day. Bands played martial music along the route, with drum rolls at especially difficult places to alert the men. At the top the monks handed each man two glasses of wine and a slice of rye with cheese as he filed by (courtesy of the French army). Accounts of the amounts expended vary. On the other side the snow became so packed that the men slid down sitting. Napoleon was the last man over, sliding also. The good weather held for the entire crossing, which could easily have turned into a disaster, if it had not.
On the way up Napoleon had discussed affairs of the heart with his young guide and mule driver, Pierre Nicholas Dorsaz
Pierre Nicholas Dorsaz
Pierre Nicholas Dorsaz , was an inhabitant of the village of Bourg-Saint-Pierre who acted as Napoleon Bonaparte's guide when he crossed the Alps in 1800, by way of the Great St Bernard Pass, as part of his plan to make an unexpected arrival in Italy, and surprise the Austrian army.There is some...
, who did not know his identity. Offered a reward at the top, Dorsaz asked for the mule on which Napoleon was riding. He received the mule and a short note for the chief supply officer of the army. Versions of the story vary, but they all agree that when the young man had turned in the note and had drawn his ample pay for the work, he found that his companion was Napoleon and the latter had given him a house and farm so that he could marry his sweetheart.
In the Aosta Valley Napoleon's army slipped by an Austrian garrison at Bard just out of cannon range. The commander related that he was astonished to watch an army of 40,000 men in full equipment go marching past from the direction of the heights.
See also
- List of highest paved roads in Europe
- List of mountain passes
- List of the highest Swiss passes
- Little St Bernard PassLittle St Bernard PassThe Little St Bernard Pass is a mountain pass in the Alps on the France–Italy border. Its saddle is at 2188 metres above sea level. It is located between Savoie, France and Aosta Valley, Italy to the south of the Mont Blanc Massif, precisely on the main alpine watershed. There is also a Great St...
- San Bernardino PassSan Bernardino PassSan Bernardino Pass is a high mountain pass in the Swiss Alps connecting the Hinterrhein and the Mesolcina valleys between Thusis and Bellinzona . Located in the far eastern side of the Western Alps it is not to be confused with the Great St. Bernard Pass and the Little St. Bernard Pass...
- Great St Bernard TunnelGreat St Bernard TunnelThe Great St Bernard Tunnel is a road tunnel complementing the Great St Bernard Pass, linking Martigny with Saint-Rhémy-en-Bosses ....