St. Gotthard Pass
St. Gotthard Pass is a pass in Switzerland at 2108m, between Airolo, Ticino, and Andermatt, Canton of Uri, connecting the northern (German speaking) part of Switzerland with the Italian-speaking part Ticino, and the route onwards to Milan. Though the pass was locally known in Antiquity, it was not generally used until the early 13th century, because it involved fording the turbulent Schöllen, swollen with snowmelt during the early summer, in the narrow steep-sided Schöllenen Gorge, below Andermatt. The bridge that was built under such challenging conditions was one of so many "Devil's Bridges" that the legends about them form a category in the Aarne-Thompson classification system for folktales (number 1191) [1]. The Reuss was so difficult to ford, that a Swiss herdsman, it was told, wished the devil would make a bridge. The Devil appeared, but required that the first to cross be given to him. The mountaineer agreed, but drove a chamois across ahead of him, fooling the Adversary [2].
The bridge permitted traffic to follow the Reuss to its headwaters and over the saddle at the top—a watershed between the Rhine and the North Sea and the Po and the Mediterranean— then down the Ticino towards Milan. It carried only foot traffic and pack animals until 1775, when the first carriage made the journey on an improved road.
The pass itself was dedicated as early as 1236 to the Bavarian Saint Gotthard (Godehard of Hildesheim) ca 960 – May 4, 1038, Abbot of Hersfeld, later Bishop of Hildesheim (1022). The son of Archbishop Frederick of Salzburg, Gotthard became abbot of the Benedictine monastery of Nieder Altaich (996) and reformed other monasteries, under the patronage of Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor. His hospice for travellers at Saint-Moritz, near Hildesheim, became famous.
The 15km St. Gotthard Tunnel, opened in 1882 for railway traffic, at a cost of 277 workers' lives replaced the pass road, which was itself superceded by the 17km highway tunnel opened in 1980. .
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Categories: Passes of Switzerland | Saints