Fenêtre de Durand
| Fenêtre de Durand | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 The pass seen from the north (left: Mont Gelé, right: Mont Avril) |
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| Compass direction | north | south | |
| Pass height | 2797 m above sea level M. | ||
| region | Canton of Valais | Aosta Valley | |
| Watershed | Rhone | Dora Baltea | |
| Valley locations | Bagnes | Valpelline | |
| expansion | Mule track | ||
| Mountains | Valais Alps | ||
| map | |||
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| Coordinates , ( CH ) | 45 ° 54 '38 " N , 7 ° 21' 23" O ( 593 608 / 84320 ) | ||
The Fenêtre de Durand is a 2797 meter high mountain pass in the Valais Alps . The mule track connects the Swiss Rhone Valley via the Val de Bagnes with the Italian Aosta Valley . The gap between the 3347 meter high Mont Avril and the 3518 meter high Mont Gelé (Chanrion) is the only ice-free passage over the main Alpine ridge east of the Grand Combin massif and west of the Monte Rosa massif . Immediately below the top of the pass is the small Lac Fenêtre on the Italian side.
history
From 1348 to 1475, several plague epidemics had decimated the population in the Val de Bagnes to such an extent that the locals no longer had enough cattle to bump all the Alps. Farmers from the Aosta Valley then drove their cows and sheep over the Fenêtre de Durand pass to Alp Grand Charmotane. At the beginning of the 16th century, the population of the Val de Bagnes had recovered so much from the plague that they wanted to summer their cattle again in all the Alps. The shepherds from the Aosta Valley did not give up the Grand Charmotane without resistance. The dispute over the right to graze dragged on for six decades. Sometimes farmers from the Aosta Valley plundered the cheese cellars of their Valais neighbors and stole cattle from them, sometimes Bagnards set out on raids into the border area.
Since the occupation of the Aosta Valley by the Germans in mid-September 1943, a much-traveled escape route to Switzerland has passed through this transition . Many of the refugees took the route via Valpelline to Ollomont and on to Alpe Berio, where experienced mountaineers from the group of resistance fighters ensured the guidance over the border passes. To avoid his arrest, the future President of Italy (1948–1955), Luigi Einaudi , passed the Fenêtre de Durand here with his wife Ida on September 26, 1943. A bronze plaque on top of the pass reminds of this. Many anti-fascists also reached Switzerland through the Valpelline when German and Italian troops launched a major attack in early November 1944 to recapture the Val di Cogne .
Today the pass is a popular crossing for mountain bikers, among other things .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Website: Berner Zeitung of July 26, 2012 Text by Richard Diethelm
- ↑ Valpelline on gedenkorte-europa.eu, the homepage of Gedenkorte Europa 1939–1945