Great Dolomite Road
The Great Dolomites Road was the first holiday road to develop the Dolomites , which was opened on September 13, 1909. It is 109 km long and crosses the Dolomites in a west-east direction from Bolzano to Cortina d'Ampezzo .
Today the road touches three Italian provinces , namely Bozen , Trento and Belluno . However, it was originally an Austrian tourist road, because from the time of its opening until 1918, the area was still part of the Austro - Habsburg monarchy . The architects, however, were Italians (Vittorio de Dal Lago, Alfredo de Riccaboni, Gualtiero Adami).
In the literature, the historical road is occasionally referred to as the “Dolomite Road”.
history
The idea of making the mountain world of the Dolomites more accessible to alpinists by means of a continuously passable road goes back to the German and Austrian Alpine Association . Theodor Christomannos from the Meran section and Albert Wachtler from the Bozen section were the initiators who wanted to open the street in honor of Emperor Franz Joseph on his 50th anniversary in government in 1898. That is why it was originally supposed to be called Kaiserstrasse , but the schedule could not be kept.
The Eggentalstraße had existed since 1860 and the Karerpassstraße since 1896 ; However, at the higher crossings - for example on the Pordoi Pass - there were only gravel paths and mule tracks. The start of construction on these routes was delayed to 1900, and it was not until 1909 that the last difficult section on Passo Falzarego was completed and the route opened to general traffic.
In the mountain war of 1915–1918 , the first phase of tourism collapsed. The pass roads were converted into military roads for the purpose of frontal replenishment and supply. The infrastructure for tourism fell into disrepair.
Only after the Second World War, in the mid-1950s, did the street regain importance. The classic route leads past the most attractive destinations for tourism in the Dolomites of the 21st century, which experiences two seasonal peak times every year - summer and early autumn for mountaineers, climbers and mountain bikers, and winter and spring for skiers. The Great Dolomites Road is one of the most important tourist routes in the Alps , especially in the context of the Sellaronda , the via ferrata and the Dolomiti Superski . However, some sections have changed significantly from their original shape.
In June, sections of the Giro d'Italia's decisive Dolomite stages are regularly integrated.
course
- From the South Tyrolean provincial capital Bolzano, the route begins in Eggental, the lower section of which is an imposing gorge . Up until December 2007, the drive on a road that was only 5 m wide between the high rock walls was a spectacular introduction to the route. Since January 2008, however, this historic road, which had become a safety risk due to the risk of falling rocks, has been closed and the Eggental Gorge has been completely tunneled under.
- The landscape opens up before Welschnofen , through pastures and coniferous forests you drive up to the Karer Pass ; on the way the rose garden and the latemar are the first, i.e. H. westernmost rock massifs of the Dolomites visible.
- Below the top of the pass, the Karersee , surrounded by dense forest and reflecting the rock faces of the Latemar, was a main attraction in keeping with the romantic zeitgeist. There was a grand hotel on the pass , in which Empress Sissi and other prominent personalities resided. Today this section of the route reaches its capacity limits in the main tourist season. The infrastructure on the pass has been adapted to contemporary needs, and the grand hotel has been converted into holiday apartments.
- At the Karerpass the border to Trentino is crossed; the road now descends into the Avisio valley to Vigo di Fassa .
- Through the Ladin-speaking towns of the Fassa Valley - Pozza di Fassa , Pera di Fassa, Campitello and the tourist center Canazei - the road leads closer to the next eastern Dolomite groups Sassolungo and Sella .
- In Canazei , which lies at the foot of the Sella Group, the elevated road begins in 99 steep hairpin bends over the central Dolomite passes. At 2,239 m, the highest point of the route is reached on the Pordoi Pass. It was already a main attraction of the entire route with a well-developed infrastructure in the prewar period, which has been reinforced today by the cable car to Sass Pordoi and the surrounding hiking trails and ski slopes.
- After crossing the border to Veneto , the Great Dolomites Road leads in further narrow bends down into the Ladin Buchenstein Valley to Arabba . You are north of the glaciated Marmolada , which is hidden by the upstream ridges. The next eastern Dolomite massifs, Le Tofane and Civetta , come closer as you drive along the Cordevole . The strikingly shaped crest of the Col di Lana above Pieve di Livinallongo once shaped the valley; At the opening of the holiday route one could not have foreseen that its demolition in 1916 would change the appearance of this summit decisively. Memorial sites and military cemeteries today commemorate these events.
- Behind Pieve di Livinallongo the road leaves the Cordevole valley and climbs up again to the bare, boulder-strewn Passo Falzarego along the steep walls of the Lagazuoi , which is now a cable car . This pass was also a battle zone during the war in the Dolomites and is now a memorial as well as a hiking and skiing area. Between Tofane and Cinque Torri the road now leads down to Pocol and down to Cortina, which lies in a depression in front of the easternmost groups that are visible from the Great Dolomite Road - Cristallo group , Sorapiss and Antelao .
Extension / problem of delimitation
Today, the term occasionally includes the continuation of about 35 more kilometers to Toblach in the Puster Valley , in two variants: Either south past Monte Cristallo over Passo Tre Croci to Lake Misurina at the foot of the Drei Zinnen or north around Monte Cristallo over the Im Gemärk pass . Both variants meet again in Schluderbach , and the road leads down through the Höhlenstein valley to Toblach. There were already navigable trade routes over both passes in the 19th century, followed by tourism. The main connection between Cortina and Toblach, however, was today's Strada Statale No. 51 or Strada di Alemagna
The Italian Strada Statale 48 delle Dolomiti is only identical to the Great Dolomite Road at its core between Vigo di Fassa and Cortina. Rather, the Italian Dolomite Road begins in Auer , leads over the Lugano Pass, and meets the historic route that descends from the Karer Pass in Vigo di Fassa. Beyond the Passo Tre Croci, it continues through the Cadore and ends in Lozzo on the Piave , where the south-eastern edge of the Dolomites is reached.
literature
- Theodor Christomannos : The Dolomite Road Bolzano - Cortina - Toblach. Chiari: Ed. Nordpress 1998, ISBN 88-85382-37-1
- Virna Pierobon: Il turismo nelle località dolomitiche nel Ventennio attraverso l'analisi dei cinegiornali Luce. Dissertation University of Trento 1998
- Sepp Schnürer: The great Dolomite Road: from Bolzano via Canazei and Cortina to Toblach. Augsburg: by Bechtermünz Verlag, hardcover 1997
- The Dolomite Road. The construction of the century. Special print for Radius edition No. 2, March 2008, p. 4 f.
