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92-743: Great St Bernard is one of the most ancient passes 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 Paul Delaroche 's Bonaparte Crossing the Alps , both notable oil paintings. Having been bypassed by easier and more practical routes, particularly

184-416: A hors catégorie climb. 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 1991-2020 is given below. The pass is well above the tree line. All the wood required for construction and firewood must be hauled in from some distance. On the south-west side of

276-614: 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

368-730: A big contributor to pollution. It delivers more than 40 percent of Italy's milk production, for example, while over half of the Italian pig production is located in the Po Valley. According to research published in The Lancet Planetary Health in January 2021, which estimates the death rate associated with fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) and nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) pollution in 1000 European cities, Brescia and Bergamo in Lombardy have

460-473: A geologic feature called the fontanili ("spring") line or zone, a band of springs around the Val Po, heaviest on the north, on the lowermost slopes of the anticline. It varies from a few kilometres to as much as 50 km (30 miles) wide. The fontanili line is the outcrop, or intersection, of the anticline's water table with the surface at the edge of the bassa . The rock above the line is porous. Surface water in

552-554: A lower sea level that allowed big mammals and humans to migrate from Africa and the Middle East to central and western Europe through an empty and open Po valley, avoiding the barrier of the Alps, reaching the Loire Valley, and Iberian Peninsula, and then, when glaciation retreated, the rest of continental Europe. Urban development began in the Po Valley much later than in southern Italy or Greece. The first known ancient inhabitants of

644-745: A lower, very fertile, and well-irrigated section, known in Lombardy and western Emilia as la Bassa , "the low (plain)". The upper areas of the Po valley take local names which reflect in their meanings their being modestly suited for farming. So we have the Piedmontese vaude and baragge , the Lombard brughiere and Groane , or, exiting from the Po valley proper, the Friulian magredi , areas remote from easily reachable water tables and covered with dense woods or dry soils. This specific meaning for "lower plain" derive from

736-472: A more significant constituent in the average diet and in the agrarian regime compared to the centuries before, leading populations to reconfigure the medieval natural landscape for agricultural purposes. In creating new land for cultivation and settlement, the European communities triggered a massive landscape transformation through woodland clearance, arable intensification, the development of irrigation systems and

828-402: A private entrepreneur for the provision of hotel services. The St Bernards were bred large enough to traverse deep snow and to find lost persons by scent. The first evidence that the dogs were in use at the monastery is two paintings dating to 1690 by Salvator Rosa . It is often said that they carried small casks of brandy around their necks (although this is only legend), in the belief that

920-501: A room with good beds already made up. As we came from the warmth of the hall into the cold room we started to shiver and just couldn't get warm, so we didn't get much sleep. My turtle was cold, too, so I took it to bed with me to try to warm it a bit. We arose at five the next morning and were given a very good and generous breakfast before we started our descent of the mountain. The clouds were threatening, black and so heavy that we could see nothing and wished earnestly that we were back onto

1012-515: 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

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1104-473: A wooden keg fastened under his chin. When they locate a victim he is offered the wine to keep him alive while the other dog runs back to the monastery to lead the monks who transport the lost back. Sometimes the lost are no longer alive." 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

1196-558: A year of their life expectancy. The main reasons for the high amount of air pollution over the Po valley are strictly connected to livestock and factories. The so-called "NPK fertilizers", made of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, along with manure emissions from intensive breeding and high levels of nitrogen dioxide released by diesel and petrol engines are all accountable for this disastrous air condition in Northern Italy. The region of Lombardy produces also vast amounts of animal waste,

1288-519: Is an almost continuous megalopolis stretching from Turin to Trieste . The bassa Padana was settled and farmed earliest, in Etruscan and Roman times. After the collapse of the Roman Empire (5th century AD), lack of maintenance of the irrigation systems associated with a cooling climate phase (i.e. the so-called Migration Period or The Dark Age Cold Period ) led to the progressive waterlogging of

1380-548: Is claimed to be likely to be lost due to soaring sea level in the next centuries. Where the land surface now dips below sea level the river must run at a relative elevation between dikes. The Malossa gas condensate field was discovered in 1973 and produces at depths of 6 km (4 miles) from the Upper Triassic Dolomia Principale dolomite and the Lower Jurassic Zandobbio dolomite, capped by

1472-451: Is for hydro-electric power, irrigation, and industrial transport. The cost of purifying it for human consumption makes that process less feasible. The fresh drinking water comes from hundreds of thousands of wells concentrated especially in the fontanili zone. The major settlements, therefore, are also in that zone, which has become the centre of economic development and industry in Italy, and now

1564-683: Is located near the western end of the Valais Alps , the next pass to the west, Col Ferret , marking the transition with the Mont Blanc massif . In that area, between Mont Dolent and Mont Vélan , the main crest of the Alps barely reaches 3,000 metres, unlike in the much higher section of the Valais Alps east of Mont Vélan and Grand Combin . Therefore, the Great St Bernard Pass is one of the only two road axis connecting Valais with northern Italy,

1656-582: Is produced by the flow of the Po. The river is extensively used for irrigation for the region's agriculture. Po valley is considered the worst area in Europe for air quality. In March 2019, the European Space Agency (ESA) published images of nitrogen dioxide concentrations taken from the Sentinel-5P satellite. These images show a big red area, made of nitrogen dioxide and fine particles, situated above

1748-466: 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 times, but the region was not secure and they were destroyed many times. The first concern of the founder of the current monastery

1840-771: The Partizione delle Alpi (in English literally Partition of the Alps ), adopted by the Italian Comitato Geografico Nazionale (National Geographic Committee) in 1926 following the IX Congresso Geografico Italiano (Italian Geographic Congress), the Alpine Range is divided into three main parts: Western, Central and Eastern Alps. In this traditional subdivision, the Western Alps start from

1932-516: The Adriatic Sea . The flatlands of Veneto and Friuli are often considered apart since they do not drain into the Po, but they effectively combine into an unbroken plain, making it the largest in Southern Europe . It has a population of 17 million, or a third of Italy's total population. The plain is the surface of an in-filled system of ancient canyons (the "Apennine Foredeep") extending from

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2024-601: The Aosta Valley region of Italy. From Martigny Route 9 descends to Lausanne and from Aosta Route A5 descends to Torino . From the north, in Switzerland, the route to the pass follows the lower part of the river Drance above Martigny, then into the sparsely populated Val d'Entremont (lit.: "valley between mountain") through which the Drance d'Entremont flows. After having passed the last inhabited locality, Bourg-Saint-Pierre ,

2116-635: The Apennines in the south to the Alps in the north, including the northern Adriatic. In addition to the Po and its affluents, the contemporary surface may be considered to include the Savio , Lamone and Reno to the south, and the Adige , Brenta , Piave and Tagliamento of the Venetian Plain to the north, among the many streams that empty into the north Adriatic from the west and north. Geo-political definitions of

2208-612: The Bocchetta di Altare (or Colle di Cadibona ) and end with the Col Ferret . The Partizione delle Alpi divides the Western Alps into the following eight sections (in brackets the section number): Maritime Alps ( 1 ), Cottian Alps ( 2 ), Graian Alps ( 3 ), Provence Alps ( 4 ), Dauphiné Alps ( 5 ), Provence Prealps ( 6 ), Dauphiné Prealps ( 7 ) and Savoy Prealps ( 8 ). Po Basin The Po Valley , Po Plain , Plain of

2300-581: The Great St Bernard Tunnel , a road 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. The Italian side of the area includes several facilities as well. Between them is the small Great St Bernard Lake . The Great St Bernard Pass

2392-540: The Guelph-Ghibelline reciprocate bloodbath of the 13th and 14th centuries. The Signorie came from spent out Communal institutions. With Venice 's expansion on the eastern mainland in the first half of the 15th century and Milan 's supremacy in the center and west the region (not significantly diminished by the Black Death of 1348) reached unprecedented peaks of prosperity. Vast areas were irrigated and cultivated with

2484-571: The Venetian domain was invaded, forcing Venice into neutrality as an independent power. In the end, Spain prevailed with Charles V 's victory over Francis I of France at the Battle of Pavia in 1525. The Spanish domination was oppressive, adding its burden to the Counterreformation imposed by the archbishopric of Milan ; Protestantism was prevented from making inroads in the area. Burning at

2576-431: The intermittent streams of the mountains tends to disappear below ground only to spring out again in the spring zone . The spring zone is often called "the middle valley." Surface runoff water (the Po and its affluents) is not of much value to the valley's dense population for drinking and other immediate uses, being unreliable, often destructive, and heavily polluted by sewage and fertilizers. Its main anthropic value

2668-464: The kingdom of Italy , always with its capital in Pavia. The affirmation of large landownership from the eighth/ninth centuries accelerated the process of land reclamation and intensified land use, transforming the landscape of the Po Valley. After the chaotic feudal dissolution of the empire and much fighting among pretenders to the imperial crown, Otto I of Saxony set the stage for the following phase of

2760-514: The 20th century) came the Germanic Lombards , a warrior people who gave their name to almost the whole of the Po valley: Lombardy . In the Middle Ages the term was used to indicate all of northern Italy. The Lombards divided their domain in duchies , often contending for the throne; Turin and Friuli, in the extreme west and east end respectively, seem to have been the most powerful, whereas

2852-490: The Alps between Italy and Switzerland. We came into a large hall where several other wanderers were seated. The monks came to shake hands with us and bid us welcome. A doctor – also a monk – asked if we had suffered any mishap coming up. The ones that had gotten hurt were treated and taken care of. They had an apothecary there also to administer to any one needing such. Another monk gave us a bowl with hot bouillon mixed with wine to warm us. We sat on wooden benches and talked with

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2944-498: The Alps. The shoreline of the Adriatic depends on a balance between the sedimentation rate and isostatic factors. Until about 1950, the Po delta was prograding into the Adriatic. After that time due to human alteration of geologic factors, such as the sedimentation rate, the delta has been degrading and the coastline subsiding, resulting in ongoing contemporaneous crises in the city of Venice , where much irreplaceable art and architecture

3036-487: The Lower Cretaceous Marne di Bruntino marl . The Po Valley is often regarded as a syncline , or dip in the crust due to compression at the edges. Regardless of whether this concept accurately describes its geology, the valley is manifestly a sediment-filled trough, or virtual syncline, continuous with the deeps of the Adriatic Sea . The surface terrain is therefore divided into two overall types of landform :

3128-506: The Po , or Padan Plain ( Italian : Pianura Padana [pjaˈnuːra paˈdaːna] , or Val Padana ) is a major geographical feature of Northern Italy . It extends approximately 650 km (400 mi) in an east-west direction, with an area of 46,000 km (18,000 square miles) including its Venetic extension not actually related to the Po river basin; it runs from the Western Alps to

3220-456: The Po Valley and the natural depressions on the right side of the Po River turned in vast swamp basins. The waterlogging process of the area continued until the 10th century influencing the human sustenance and settling practices. According to historical-archaeological data, indeed, the wetlands were exploited for fishing as well as for transport by boat while the early medieval sites settled on

3312-592: The Po Valley area, which incorporates the city of Milan , Turin , and Bologna . Milan and Turin share high levels of ozone and nitrogen oxides , which are mainly produced by cars' diesel and petrol engines. To shed light on the danger for humans living polluted environments, Chicago Energy Policy Institute has developed the Air Quality Life Index (AQLI), a system capable of analyzing air pollution worldwide. According to AQLI findings, Po valley air pollution affects inhabitants so hard that it cuts off about half

3404-653: The Po Valley during some of his brightest campaigns (1796 and 1800, culminating in the historical Battle of Marengo ), he found an advanced country and made it into his Kingdom of Italy . With Napoleon's final defeat the Austrians came back, but they were no longer welcome. In the west, in Piedmont , the Savoy dynasty would emerge to serve as a springboard for Italian unification. The Risorgimento , after an unsuccessful start in 1848 and 1849, triumphed ten years later in Lombardy , which

3496-509: The Po Valley reached its peak during the Renaissance (15th–16th centuries) and continued in the Modern Age (17th–18th centuries), with the last marsh areas only being reclaimed in the 20th century: channels and drainage system are still active and allow the Po Valley to be drained and be cultivatable. The Po Valley has a generally humid subtropical (Köppen: Cfa ) climate. The conformation of

3588-515: The Ticino River and are protected by a Biosphere Reserve. The Po Valley has had traces of inhabitation since at least 780,000 years ago, when the first big glaciation of pleistocene took place. Sites like Monte Poggiolo may have served as refuges of human populations fleeing the terribly cold conditions of northern Europe during the subsequent glaciations along pleistocene. The valley was covered by sea level in warm times, but glaciations could cause

3680-514: The ancient name of Bologna . The Etruscan domination left significant marks and introduced urban civilisation, but was short-lived. Its inhabitants, the Venetics , likely being a distinct group who, being skillful merchants, were, in time, also culturally influenced by both Etruscans and Greeks . By 500 BC the Etruscans were gradually displaced from the region by migrating Gauls. By 196 BC, Rome

3772-565: The area, despite the destruction caused by Allied aerial bombing of many cities and heavy frontline fighting in Romagna . The Resistance protected the main industries, which the Third Reich was using for war production, preventing their destruction: on 25 April 1945 a general insurrection in the wake of the German defeat was a huge success. Most cities and towns, notably Milan and Turin, were freed by

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3864-476: 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 they 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

3956-468: The capital soon shifted from Verona to Pavia . Monza also was an important town in that time, more so than ruined Milan . The Lombards' harsh, caste -like rule over the natives softened somewhat with their conversion from Arianism to Catholicism . The Lombard kingdom was overthrown in 774 by Charlemagne and his Frankish armies, becoming a prized part of the Carolingian Empire , forming

4048-403: The drainage of wetlands. Land reclamations works profoundly modified many European regions. In Central Po Plain the earliest evidence of attempts to clear the forests and drain the wetlands is mentioned in historical documents from the late 8th century, but only from the 10th to 13th centuries were land and water management activities actually carried out widely. Further civil wars escalated in

4140-798: The east again, then smoothly to the southeast at La Clusaz ( Gignod ). Here the river enters the Buthier river in the lower end of the Valpelline valley and turns south again on which end finally the river flows into the Dora Baltea near the Pont de Pierre in Aosta . The route here in the main valley of the Val d'Aoste becomes part of the A5 motorway connecting the Mont Blanc Tunnel to

4232-451: 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

4324-470: The fluvial ridges, in topographically higher and strategic position in the surrounding swampy meadows. The Po Valley has been completely turned to agriculture since the Middle Ages , when efforts from monastic orders, feudal lords and free communes converged. The older and smaller cities deriving from ancient times are still located there. According to historical maps and documents the land reclamation of

4416-453: The green earth once more. It was hard work going up the mountain but worse going down. We sank into the snow, several times so deep that we had all we could do to get up again. I had expected to see some of the dogs, but we were following the wooden markers and the dogs are trained to go afield and search for the ones that missed the markers. It is impossible to find the way over the mountain without help. The large dogs searched in pairs - one has

4508-599: The highest death rate from fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) in Europe. Vicenza ( Veneto ) and Saronno (Lombardy) are in fourth and eighth place, respectively, in a top ten of ten cities. Turin and Milan are also at the top of the European ranking – 3rd and 5th respectively – in terms of increased mortality from nitrogen dioxide, a gas that is produced mainly from traffic and in particular from diesel vehicles, while Verona , Treviso , Padova , Como and Venice rank eleventh, fourteenth, fifteenth, seventeenth and twenty-third respectively. The data show that many cities in

4600-425: 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,

4692-412: The liquor had medicinal properties. A description of an overnight stay at the monastery in 1857 was given by Theodore Nielsen, a Danish kleinsmith journeyman, in his memoirs: "In the evening we reached the monastery of St Bernard on the top of the mountain. Enormous sums of money were expended to build these cloisters that were made of stonework and were placed there to give sustenance to travellers on

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4784-436: 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 -

4876-444: The mid 1820s. Dickens describes the sites of the pass, and the experience of staying overnight in the inn, having visited it in person. Western Alps The Western Alps are the western part of the Alpine Range including the southeastern part of France (e.g. Savoie ), the whole of Monaco , the northwestern part of Italy (i.e. Piedmont and the Aosta Valley ) and the southwestern part of Switzerland (e.g. Valais ). In

4968-451: The most modern techniques available. The population averaged some 50 people per square kilometer, a very high standard for those times. In 1494, the ruinous Italian Wars began between France and Spain , which lasted for decades. Land changed hands frequently. Even Switzerland received some Italian-speaking lands in the north ( Canton Ticino , not technically a part of the Padan region), and

5060-506: The north. The Po Valley and the Adriatic overlay a foreland basin and a system of deeply buried ancient canyons surviving from the tectonic collision of an offshore land mass, Tyrrhenis, with the mainland, an incident within the collision of the African and Eurasian plates. Since the Messinian (7–5 mya ) the system has been filling with sediment mainly from the older Apennines but also from

5152-548: The other axis being the Simplon Pass . The pass runs northwest–southeast 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 2,469 m (8,100 ft). The road running through the pass, highway E27 in both Italy and Switzerland , joins Martigny on the upper Rhône in the canton of Valais , Switzerland, to Aosta in

5244-533: 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, above ). The Congregation of Canons of the Great Saint Bernard (the monks) also owns the Hôtel de l'Hospice du Grand-St-Bernard, a four-storey building made of grey stone (built in 1899) on the Italian side, which it leases to

5336-418: The partisans days before the Allies arrived. After the war, the Padan area took the lead in the economic miracle of the 1950s and 60s. Since 1989, Lega Nord , a federation of Northern regionalist parties, has promoted either secession or larger autonomy for the Padan area which they call Padania . The Po Valley is one of the most important industrial and agricultural areas in Europe. Hydroelectricity

5428-410: The pass is a small tarn , the Great St Bernard Lake , 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

5520-407: The pass with 40,000 men and ⅓ 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

5612-439: The pass, after having passed the Combe des Morts. On the south side the route descends a few metres and reaches the shores of the lake before its enters Italy. Then the route follows the steep slopes of the upper part of the torrent du Grand Saint-Bernard to the south, then turns to the east and follows the river in a bend to the south, where the mountain river enters the torrent Artanavaz near Saint-Rhémy-en-Bosses and turns to

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5704-418: 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

5796-415: The peaks of Grande Chenalette at 2,889 m (9,478 ft) and Mont Mort at 2,867 m (9,406 ft). Slightly to the west is Pointe de Drône at 2,949 m (9,675 ft), the highest peak. Between it and the pass is Petite Chenalette at 2,885 m (9,465 ft). The Tour de France has visited the pass five times. It was climbed four times as a 1st category climb, and one time, in 2009, as

5888-400: The plain north of the Adriatic and the territory south of the lower Po, as shown in the regional depiction included with this article. The law defines the Po basin as "the territory from which rainwater or snow and glacier melt flows on the surface, gathers in streams of water either directly or via tributaries...". The United Nations Environment Program includes the Alps and Apennines as far as

5980-401: The plain, or flat surface of the fill, and the anticline at the edges, taking the form of hilly country in which the outcrops of the original rock are visible along with alluvial fans formed from the outwash of the more severe anticlinal terrain; that is, the Apennines and the Alps. The valley is broadly divided into an upper, drier part, often not particularly suited for agriculture, and

6072-532: The plain, surrounded by the Alps and the Apennines , and the influence of the Adriatic Sea cause high levels of relative humidity throughout the year. The climate is increasingly warmer and more humid farther south and east. Winters are cool and damp, with January mean temperatures ranging between 0 and 5 °C (32 and 41 °F). Fog and mist are frequent, although the urban heat effect has made winters less foggy and cold than before in some areas. Snow and winter droughts can deny sufficient moisture to

6164-402: The purpose: Fondation Barry du Grand Saint Bernard (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

6256-411: The region's history by adding the Po Valley to the Holy Roman Empire of the Germanic nation in 962. In Veneto , the lagoon capital of Venice , emerged a great sea power in alliance with its old master, the Byzantine Empire . In time the Comuni emerged, as towns thrived in commerce. Soon Milan became the most powerful city of the central plain of Lombardy proper, and despite being razed in 1162, it

6348-405: The rest of the people. There was a large stove and the place was lovely and warm. Some of the large St Bernard dogs were about and when we sat down came over to give our hands a lick just as if they wanted to say Hello too. At dinnertime we were given a piece of meat on a wooden trivet, bread and wine. The bread was so hard that it seemed we tried to bite into a piece of wood. Later we were shown into

6440-568: The river's origin in the southern Piedmontese province of Cuneo , also known as the Provincia granda . The valley is crossed by a number of affluents running down from the Alps in the north and from the Apennines in the south. The Po's major affluents include the Tanaro , Scrivia , Trebbia , Panaro and Secchia in the south, Dora Riparia , Dora Baltea , Sesia , Ticino (draining Lake Maggiore ), Lambro , Adda (draining Lake Como ), Oglio (draining Lake Iseo ) and Mincio (draining Lake Garda and called Sarca in its upper reaches) in

6532-405: The road runs above a large reservoir, the Lac des Toules . At the location of Bourg-Saint-Bernard, the Great St Bernard Tunnel (and the main road) plunges through the mountains at a 1,915 m (6,283 ft) level, reducing, since the tunnel's opening in 1964, the commercial relevance of the road over the pass. The summit section of the road consists of hairpin turns before it reaches the top of

6624-480: 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 XXIIII

6716-499: 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 centre for others on retreat. The pass first appears in history as the route taken by the Celtic tribes of the Boii and Lingones in

6808-403: The soil for agriculture. Summers are hot and humid, with July mean temperatures ranging between 22 and 25 °C (72 and 77 °F) (1971–2000 averages). Frequent thunderstorms and sudden hailstorms can produce large hail, dump large quantities of rain, and destroy crops. Supercell thunderstorms produce large hail, with significant agricultural costs. Tornadoes are common in the plains of

6900-502: The sources of the tributaries of the Po but excludes Veneto and that portion of Emilia-Romagna south of the lower Po; that is, it includes the region drained by the Po but only the Po and its tributaries. The altitude of the valley through which the Po flows, exclusive of its tributaries, varies from approximately 4 m (15 feet) below sea level in the Polesine subregion (the delta around Ferrara ) to about 2,100 m (6,900 feet) at

6992-691: The southeast the range is bounded by the Italian Padan Plain . In the west, the valley of the Rhone river separates it from the Massif Central . The northernmost part of the Western Alps - in the wide meaning of the term - is formed by the Swiss Prealps Sub-Range. The peaks and mountain passes are higher compared to the Eastern Alps , while the range itself is not so broad and more arched. In

7084-491: The stake became common practice during witchhunts , especially in the neighboring Alpine lands. During this bleak period, however, Lombard industry recovered, especially the textile branch, its pillar. When the War of Spanish Succession traded Milan to Austria , government and administration improved significantly. Though the peasantry began a century-long plunge into misery, cities prospered and grew. When Napoleon I entered

7176-471: 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

7268-610: The thick forests and swamps were the Ligurians , who may have been an Indo-European people. After the progressive immigration in the 7th century BC of Celtic peoples known as the Insubres (hence the name of Insubria sometimes being given to northwestern Lombardy ), the southern and central regions were conquered and colonised here and there by a pre-Indo-European people, the Etruscans , who left names such as Parma , Ravenna and Felsina,

7360-493: The valley depend on the defining authority. The Po Basin Water Board ( Italian : Autorità di bacino del fiume Po ), authorized in 1989 by Law no. 183/89 to oversee "protection of lands, water rehabilitation, the use and management of hydro resources for the national economic and social development, and protection of related environment" within the Po basin, has authority in several administrative regions of north Italy, including

7452-523: The valley. The Friuli-Venezia Giulia ,beyond the Po River plain itself, is downwind of the mountains and upwind of moisture sources from nearby is an exception. Spring and autumn are well-marked and pleasant. Both winter and summer are less mild in the lower parts along the Po, while the Adriatic Sea and the great lakes moderate the local climate in their proximity. Rainfall varies between 700 and 1,200 mm (30 and 45 inches) and equally distributed during

7544-565: 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. Julius Caesar 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

7636-467: The west and the upper Po Basin to the southeast. A reduction of utility began after the construction of the Simplon Tunnel , strictly a railway tunnel, 100 km (62 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. The pass at narrowest point runs between

7728-606: The year. Rainfall maximums are during autumn and spring. Winds are usually weak, although sudden bursts of foehn or thunderstorms can sweep the air clean. The almost enclosed nature of the Padan basin with much road traffic, makes it prone to a high level of pollution in winter, when cold air clings to the soil . The natural potential vegetation of the Po basin is a mixed broadleaf forest of pedunculate oak , poplars , European hornbeam , alders , elderberry , elms , willows , maples , ash , and other central-European trees. The largest remaining fragments of forest are located around

7820-537: Was a Milan-driven Lombard League with Papal benediction that defeated emperor Frederick Barbarossa at the Battle of Legnano in 1176. Between the 10th and 13th centuries, concurrent with the Medieval Warm Period climate phase, the European population grew substantially, almost tripling (in Northern and Central Italy, the urban population doubled), and increasing the demand for cultivated lands. Cereals became

7912-581: 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 Austrian army of 140,000 men had laid siege to French-occupied Genoa on the west coast of northern Italy. Napoleon traversed

8004-470: Was astonished to watch an army of 40,000 men in full equipment go marching past from the direction of the heights. The Dorrit family crossed from France into Italy in Book Two: Riches of the novel Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens . They meet the newly-wed Gowans and the gentlemanly murderer Rigaud, now called Blandois, at the inn after climbing up on mules. The novel was published in 1857, but set in

8096-555: Was conquered by a Franco-Piedmontese army. In 1866 Veneto joined young Italy, thanks to Prussia 's defeat of Austria . Poverty in the countryside increased emigration to the Americas , a phenomenon which subsided in the central region towards the end of the 19th century, but persisted in Veneto well into the 20th century. Industry grew rapidly, thanks to an abundance of water and literate manpower. The World Wars did not significantly damage

8188-413: 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

8280-408: Was master of the woody plains and soon displaced the Etruscans, dotting the region with bustling colonies, clearing the land, fighting the last rebel tribes and gradually imposing its own civilisation. The Gothic War and Justinian's plague devastated the Padan population. In this scenario of desolation, from which many people had fled to the mountains for safety (making them fairly populated till

8372-408: Was the last man over, sliding also. The good weather held for the entire crossing, otherwise the crossing could have easily become disastrous. 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

8464-418: 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

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