Karerpass

Karerpass
	The Karerpass towards Fassatal
Pass height	1752 m slm
expansion	Great Dolomite Road ( Strada Statale 241 )
Built	1861-1896
Mountains	Dolomites
	profile
	map
Coordinates	46 ° 24 '16 " N , 11 ° 36' 31" E Coordinates: 46 ° 24 '16 " N , 11 ° 36' 31" E

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The Karerpass ( Italian Passo di Costalunga ; Fassan- Ladin Jouf de Ciareja ) is the pass between the Rosengarten and the Latemar in the Italian Dolomites . It connects the Eggental with the Fassatal (Italian Val di Fassa ) and thus South Tyrol with the Trentino . It is located at an altitude of 1752 m slm. Just below the pass in Eggental lies the Karersee (Italian: Lago di Carezza ).

history

prehistory

The Karer Pass is one of the old crossings, although it was never of paramount importance and was only used by shepherds and muleers. The Stone Age finds are relatively small, so there are sites south of the crossing near an alpine hut. Smaller finds are also known from the opposite side of the pass slope. The relatively small amount of finds from the Stone Age shows that the Karer Pass was known to Stone Age people, was probably also regularly climbed, but was of no further significance beyond local interests.

In fact, nothing is known about the importance of the Karer Pass among the Romans; like most of the other Dolomite passes , it was probably used at least locally at this time. Nothing about that changed in the early Middle Ages. Only in the high Middle Ages did it seem to have had any significance for regional trade, as the mule track over the Karer Pass was referred to as Strass in a document from 1387 .

Surname

The Karer Pass is also known as Caressa or Careccia , and other names are also known (such as Passo Carezza ), as is still the case today with the Italians Passo di Costalunga after the Rio de Costalonga, which rises southeast of the top of the pass . And among the Ladins, the Karer Pass is also known as Col da la Fratta , which means something like 'Bruchjoch' in German, and is reminiscent of a former forest on the top of the pass that was destroyed a few centuries ago by repeated wind breaks. The name Caressa could come from a misinterpretation of vial da carezar , which describes a 'mule track that may be negotiable '. The Italians thought that carezar was derived from kareca ( Eng . " Sedge ") and made a caressa out of it . From this, Karer could have been derived in German, with which some lakes near the pass were also referred to, probably from these lakes the name Karer was carried over to the top of the pass.

Other historians suspect that the Karerseen were decisive for the name of the pass. A Kar, also Kahr, Kaar (from the Old High German char "Trog, Krug") is a kettle-shaped, amphitheater-like depression on a mountain slope with a flat bottom and steep back walls. Towards the valley it is often closed by a Karriegel (Karschwelle), in which a Karsee also forms.

The street

Construction of the Karerpass road began as early as 1861, but the construction work stayed in the valley for a long time. Until 1861 the road went to Birchabruck , it did not reach Welschnofen until 1884 . Another decade later, the Karer Pass was crossed in 1895, but it was not until 1896 that the Karer Pass road from Birchabruck to Vigo di Fassa could also be continuously used by traffic. During an extensive expansion under Mussolini in the 1930s, not only was the former street width doubled from 3 meters to six, but the street as a whole was also extensively improved. However, extensive modernization has also been necessary in recent times, for example due to some new engineering structures, there have even been some new routes . In late autumn 1986, after 16 years of construction, the section between Prösels and Tiers, which was only a few kilometers long, was opened to traffic.

A few kilometers northeast of the Karer Pass is the 1,688 m high Niger Pass, from which you can reach the Karer Pass from Bolzano and through the Tiers valley . The winding road is more of a detour and is harder to drive on than the direct road. It does not cross the actual Niger Pass, it only touches it, the actual pass and highest point of this road is at the Tscheiner Hut , there the road reaches a peak height of 1774 m.

Tourist infrastructure

Giant hotels in the mountains

The driving force behind the touristic development of the Karerpass area was Theodor Christomannos . At that time the trend came from Switzerland to place giant hotels in the mountains, whose luxurious all-round care paired with the advantages of the mountain climate and the scenic beauties formed an enormous attraction for well-heeled guests. Christomannos set itself the goal of taking this development into account in Tyrol and realizing similar buildings in attractive areas where alpine tourism had already gained a foothold. In the Ortler area he had already shown the way with the construction of the road to Sulden and the construction of the Suldenhotel from 1891–1892 based on the plans of the architect Otto Schmid . The Karerpass road, which is currently under construction, moved him to extend his feelers to this area at the foot of the rose garden and the Latemar .

The Grand Hotel Karersee

Grand Hotel Karersee

Otto Schmid had already tried in vain in 1887 to buy Ararian land directly on Lake Karersee in order to build a hotel. A little later, Christomannos acquired 100 Joch Grund from private alpine meadow owners below the Karer Pass and began the preparatory work for the hotel building planned by the Merano architect Karl Lun in 1894. The building site had to be drained. A small power station for energy generation, its own sawmill, a brick factory, lime kilns and accommodation for the workers were built. A porphyry quarry was uncovered near the Planggenschwaige. The workforce, which numbered around 560 people at peak times, completed the hotel and the farm buildings in just 14 months. On July 5, 1896, the hotel was inaugurated in the presence of 300 guests and a large number of spectators from the surrounding villages and alpine pastures. It had 170 rooms and 280 beds and became a meeting place for celebrities: in August / September 1897 Empress Sissi stayed at the hotel; many representatives of the European nobility did the same. Agatha Christie , Karl May , Sigmund Freud are just a few more catchy names of famous guests of the time. The hotel had a chapel and a 9-hole golf course , which was laid out in 1904 at the instigation of English guests, making it one of the oldest in South Tyrol.

In the middle of the high season, on the morning of August 15, 1910, a major fire destroyed the hotel. It had broken out in the attic, the cause could not be determined. Reconstruction began in the same year. In June 1912 the rebuilt hotel, which now had 350 rooms with 500 beds, was inaugurated. The insurance took over the damage of 1,300,000 crowns. During the First World War it served as a base for the Austrian generals. Hotel operations could only be resumed in 1925. In 1943 it was confiscated by the German Wehrmacht . In 1947 it resumed its function as a hotel. The "Suite Churchill" still indicates that the English Prime Minister Winston Churchill spent his vacation with his wife and his entourage in the Grand Hotel Karersee. Winston Churchill was able to pursue his favorite pastime, painting, undisturbed here. The Grand Hotel has now been converted into a holiday apartment complex. The historic dining room and indoor pool have been preserved.

In the second half of the 20th century, tourism in the Dolomites started again. The Karersee settlement and the Carezza - Karersee ski area with around 30 km of slopes were built in the immediate vicinity of the hotel . In summer, the area is frequented by hikers, climbers and mountain bikers.

A 9-hole golf course has also been open again since 1990.

Today the Grand Hotel consists partly of private apartments and partly of hotel rooms. The house belongs to a total of over 600 people.

Web links

Commons : Karerpass - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Steffan Bruns: ALPENPASSES - history of the alpine pass crossings. From the Inn to Lake Garda . 1st edition. tape 3 . L. Staackmann Verlag, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-88675-273-7 , p. 168 .

[SB_ALPENPAESSE-1] Steffan Bruns: ALPENPASSES - history of the alpine pass crossings. From the Inn to Lake Garda . 1st edition. tape 3 . L. Staackmann Verlag, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-88675-273-7 , p. 168 .