Camino de Suizos

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The "Camino Español", with its main routes from Barcelona and Naples to Brussels, via Genoa and Milan.

The Camino de Suizos was an approximately 550 km long alternative section of the Camino Español , an army road that was used from 1604 to lead Spanish troops from Milan over the Gotthard Pass to Brussels .

history

The Habsburg possessions in the Spanish Netherlands were threatened by uprisings in the second half of the 16th century. In order to suppress the uprisings, troop units were moved from Spain to Flanders from 1567 onwards at the behest of Philip II and his successors during the Eighty Years' War . Since France could not obtain a permit to move through , the transalpine supplies were carried over the Camino Español , which connected Genoa to Brussels via Mont Cenis , through Savoy and Burgundy . The Waldshut Treaty of Archduke Ferdinand with the five places of 1529 and its extensions made it possible to pass through the area of ​​the Catholic cantons from 1587. From 1604 a route over the Gotthard, the Camino de Suizos, was used . Another route led further east across the Valtellina and Tyrol and joined the Camino de Suizos at Waldshut . With the outbreak of the Thirty Years War and the changed political situation, the Camino de Suizos came to a standstill from 1625 until the end of the Eighty Years War in 1648. According to Rudolf Bolzern, between 1604 and 1625 a total of 73,000 men passed through this section of the Camino Español .

route

The Camino de Suizos began in Milan , the then military logistic center of the Habsburg Empire. The classic route was described by Virués. Via Como , Bellinzona and the Gotthard, the route led on land and sometimes via Swiss waters via Altdorf , Zug or Lucerne , Bremgarten and Baden to the Rhine. From Waldshut the route led through Habsburg territory again. The Black Forest was crossed in three days' marches to Staufen , which corresponds to a daily performance of about 27 km despite the large differences in altitude. After the occupation of the Rhine near Blodelsheim , the route continued via Alsace and Lorraine , where the Camino de Suizos and Camino Español west of Épinal joined together, to Brussels or Namur . The Camino de Suizos was ten daily stages shorter than the Camino Español . The approximately 900 km long distance from Milan to Brussels was covered in about 30 to 50 days, depending on the size of the troops. Alternative partial routes were used depending on the political situation and the road conditions.

The Carta al dotor Geronimo de Virués

One of the first Spanish sections on the "Camino de Suizos" was led in August and September 1604 by the Spanish captain and poet Cristóbal de Virués . Virués committed the Camino a second time in December 1604. In his poem, the Carta al dotor Geronimo de Virués , dated June 17, 1605, Virués wrote a description of the Camino and the dangers it faced, which first appeared in 1609 in his Obras tragicas y liricas . Virués mentions individual stops on his "Camino de Suizos" in the following order: Milan (Milan), Lugan (Lugano), Belinzona (Bellinzona), Polegio, Feit (Faido), Airolo, San Cotaldo (Gotthard), Artolfo (Altdorf) , Locera (Lucerne), Bremgartendia (Bremgarten), Baden, Balsuhet (Waldshut), Estaufein (Staufen), Plodestein (Blodelsheim), Rulisgein (Réguisheim), Mosch (Moosch) and Rus (Rupt).

literature

  • Rudolf Bolzern: Spain, Milan and the Catholic Confederation , Rex-Verlag, 1982, p. 102ff.
  • Rudolf Bolzern: The Spanish troop movements through Switzerland from 1604 and 1605, Rivista storica svizzera, Allgemeine Geschichtforschende Gesellschaft der Schweiz, Vereinigung Schweizerischer Archivare, Volume 36, 1986, p. 47.
  • Swiss History Journal , Volume 45, Leemann, 1995, p. 350.
  • Fernando Martínez Laínez: Una pica en Flandes : la epopeya del camino español, EDAF, 2007, p. 220.
  • Geoffry Parker: The Army of Flanders and the Spanish Road, 1567-1659: The Logistics of Spanish Victory and Defeat in the Low Countries' Wars , Cambridge University Press, 2004, p. 42ff.
  • John G. Weiger: Cristóbal de Virués Twain Publishers, Boston 1978, ISBN 0-8057-6338-4

Web links

  • El Camino Español , page in Spanish [2]
  • El Camino de Suizos , page in Spanish [3]

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rudolf Bolzern: Keyword Spain in the Historical Lexicon of Switzerland, Section 2, as of February 10, 2012
  2. ↑ El Camino: Part 2, Suiza on [1]
  3. ^ Baron von Münch: Virués life and works, in: Yearbook for Romance and English Literature, Volume 2, Ferd. Dummler, 1860, p. 154ff.
  4. ↑ John Weiger: Cristobal de Viruès, Boston, Twaynne, 1978