Furnace pass

Furnace pass
	View from the top of the pass to the northwest
Pass height	2149 m above sea level M.
Valleys: ; Canton, Country:	Engadin / Münstertal Graubünden Switzerland;
expansion	paved road
Built	1871
Winter closure	No
Mountains	Sesvenna group (northeast) ; Ortler group (southwest)
particularities	The north-west climb leads through the Swiss National Park
	profile
	map
Coordinates	818 465 / 169360 coordinates: 46 ° 38 '23 " N , 10 ° 17' 33" O ; CH1903: eight hundred eighteen thousand four hundred and sixty-five / 169360

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The Ofenpass ( Rhaeto-Romanic Pass dal Fuorn ^?^/^I ) is a pass at 2149 m above sea level. M. in the Swiss canton of Graubünden between Zernez in the Engadine and the Val Müstair , which separates the Sesvenna group ( orographic left) from the Ortler group (right).

Starting from Zernez, the Ofenpassstrasse H 28 crosses the Swiss National Park on the north side and after 19.1 km reaches the top of the pass just outside the park. 7.1 km earlier you can branch off into the Munt-la-Schera tunnel to get to Livigno, Italy .

In the Atlas Tyrolensis of 1774, the pass after the village of Tschierv in the Münstertal is called Tschirfser Jöchl .

history

Pass from the south.

Stone age

The watershed of the Ofen Pass, which is still wooded today despite the deforestation, has always been a transition from the Adige valley to the Inn valley . The finds from Ova Spin , 11 kilometers northwest of the pass, have a Neolithic character, which suggests that they were already used at that time.

Roman times

The Romans did not build a road, but a mule track led over the pass, which established the connections between the Via Claudia Augusta and the Bündner passes.

middle Ages

Ruins of a lime kiln to the northwest of today's Il Fuorn inn . In operation until the 19th century

In the early Middle Ages , the Engadin - Vinschgau route increased in importance , although it is unclear whether it actually led over the Ofen Pass in the beginning. Since a taberna Ardez is mentioned in Carolingian times on the way from Chur over the Julier to Müstair, the traffic at that time may have been different; So (perhaps) a pass path that bypassed it led from Val S-charl over the Pass da Costainas into Val Müstair.

Mining

The furnace pass takes its name from earlier iron smelters , which once processed iron ore from nearby mines near the pass . Not far from the paths that are still used today, their remains and ruins can be seen in the landscape, especially the brick blast furnaces are noticeable. The need for wood for huts and mines was enormous, which is why the formerly numerous forests far around the pass were cut down. Despite some subsequent afforestation, the damage can still be seen today.

1332 issued bishop of Chur Ulrich von Lenzburg the von Planta family the right, in the area of the Ofen Pass on Munt Buffalora to mine. Then several tunnels were created with mallets and iron or with fire sets , the total length of which is estimated to be around 14 kilometers. The settlement of the miners and the mining-related trades (charcoal burners, forest workers, iron smelters, transport workers), comprising around 20 buildings, was located on the current pasture of Alp Buffalora.

In 1489 Sigismondo de Zenoni from Bormio founded another mining company on the Ofen Pass in the Murteras da Grimmels area , which had to cease operations after six years due to a lack of yield. The Swabian War brought mining to a complete standstill from 1499.

A new mining attempt was made in 1580 under Johannes von Salis-Samedan . In terms of technology, a significant step forward was taken, since the previous racing furnaces could now be replaced by blast furnaces and liquid pig iron could be produced. Since the iron ore deposits in the Munt Buffalora and Murteras da Grimmels mining areas were already exhausted or insufficiently productive, the ore required for smelting was transported from the Bormio area to the Ofen Pass . In contrast to the Bormio area, there was still sufficient wood available for smelting. Over time, however, this transport proved to be unprofitable, so that the smelting was stopped again at the beginning of the 17th century.

In 1684, with Johann Heinrich von Planta, it was again a member of the von Planta family, under whom the last mining period on the Ofen Pass began. Von Planta had a new blast furnace ( raft furnace ) built on the foundations of an old furnace near Il Fuorn . The ores required for smelting came largely from Bormio. But even this smelting was probably stopped after a few years. The ruins of the furnace from 1684 have been preserved to this day.

traffic

Road construction

Buffalora ( 1968 m above sea level ) on the north ramp of the pass, approx. 2 km before the top of the pass. View to the west towards Zernez, into the national park. On the right in the background the Piz dal Fuorn ( 2906 m above sea level )

The original mule track on the north ramp led from Ova Spin via Champlönch to the Süsom Givé pass in the middle of the 19th century .

In 1871 today's road was built. Today it follows the main valley or the Ova dal Fuorn (Eng. «Ofenbach») in an exposed way, but with significantly less gradient . The construction is related to the construction of the modern Engadiner Talstrasse from 1865, today's Hauptstrasse 27 , as well as the construction of the Flüelapassstrasse from 1867.

Ofenbergbahn

In the period from 1895 to 1914, never realized ideas arose to build a Ofenbergbahn to connect the Swiss Lower Engadine with the South Tyrolean Vinschgau via the Ofen Pass .

National park

The Swiss National Park was founded in 1914 in this area, which was populated by wolves and bears and rich in wildlife until the end of the 19th century . The section of the pass road from Ova Spin via Il Fuorn to Buffalora on the north ramp is the only road that is part of today's national park. The top of the pass and the south ramp are outside the park.

Flora and fauna

In 2004 the largest Hallima clone in Europe was discovered near the Ofen Pass . The approximately 1000 year old mushroom has an estimated diameter of 500 to 800 meters.

In July 2005 the brown bear JJ2 was sighted at the pass . Bears had become extinct in Switzerland since 1904.

Individual evidence

↑ Steffan Bruns: Alpine passes - history of the alpine pass crossings . From the Inn to Lake Garda. 1st edition. tape 3 . L. Staackmann Verlag KG, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-88675-273-7 , p. 53 .

↑ Hans Stäbler: Mining on the Ofenpass. In: Bergknappe - Communications No. 7 of the Association of Friends of Mining in Graubünden, Issue 3–4 / 1978, pp. 7–12.

↑ Inventory of historical traffic routes in the canton of Graubünden, route GR 65 Zernez - Sta. Maria (- Glurns / - Bormio); Oven pass ( memento of the original from January 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Accessed January 3, 2014) @1@ 2

↑ Dufour card

^ Siegfried Map , National Map of Switzerland

^ Hallimasch - Armillaria mellea . Mushroom advisor. Mushroom information, recipes and advice. Archived from the original on April 22, 2012. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved April 7, 2010.

↑ Philip Bethge: Brown Bears in the Alps. The Great Bear Comeback . Spiegel Online International. Retrieved April 7, 2010.

literature

Martin Bundi: Oven pass. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . June 15, 2015 .
Daniel Schläpfer: The Eisenberge at the Ofenpass - Homens da (l) fier al Pass dal Fuorn. New contributions to the geography and history of mining and ore smelting in the Swiss National Park and in the Biosfera Val Müstair. (= National Park Research in Switzerland, 101.) Haupt-Verlag, Bern 2013, ISBN 978-3-258-07820-5 .

Web links

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

The furnace pass for cyclists on Quaeldich.de

[SB_ALPENPAESSE-1] Steffan Bruns: Alpine passes - history of the alpine pass crossings . From the Inn to Lake Garda. 1st edition. tape 3 . L. Staackmann Verlag KG, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-88675-273-7 , p. 53 .

[2] Hans Stäbler: Mining on the Ofenpass. In: Bergknappe - Communications No. 7 of the Association of Friends of Mining in Graubünden, Issue 3–4 / 1978, pp. 7–12.