Ponale Street
The Ponale road ( Italian Strada del Ponale ) is a road on the north western shore of Lake Garda , the Riva del Garda to the Val di Ledro connects. Today it is only accessible to hikers and cyclists.
course
The Ponale road leads over a length of 5.5 km from Riva del Garda ( 70 m slm ) on the north shore of Lake Garda to the fraction Biacesa ( 418 m slm ) at the eastern entrance of the Ledro valley and overcomes about 330 meters in altitude. It leads through a total of eight tunnels, which were built at different times, and repeatedly reveals views of Lake Garda, Riva and the opposite Monte Baldo .
After about 3 km of the route, a nearly 2 km long road branches off towards Pregasina ( 400 m slm ), which was only completed in 1956. This leads in a southerly direction first over the Ponale and then in several serpentines to the fraction belonging to Riva del Garda and was the only road connection of the village until the completion of the road tunnel in 1998 that connected Pregasina with the Val di Ledro.
history
The Ponale road was built by Giacomo Cis between 1848 and 1851 to connect the Ledro Valley with the Garda area. It was named after him in honor of its builder ( Sentiero del Ponale di Giacomo Cis ). It was the first and only direct connection from the Lake Garda area to the Ledro Valley and ended its isolation.
The Austrian military also quickly realized the importance of this road as a gateway to Riva. As early as 1859 after the Second Italian War of Independence and the loss of Lombardy , thought was given to fortifying the road and in the following years a smaller open artillery position was built on the road. When in the Third Italian War of Independence during the Battle of Bezzecca on July 21, 1866, Italian troopers under Giuseppe Garibaldi could only be stopped on Ponale Street using the Lake Garda flotilla and the San Nicolo battery , this first defensive position was given up again because it was called too insufficiently considered. By the end of the 19th century, various plans for the construction of a barrier on the Ponale were presented. These were finally implemented in 1904 with the construction of the Ponale road block on the third road tunnel coming from Riva today. During the First World War, this facility was largely built underground and was part of the Ponale barrier group , which belonged to the so-called Riva fortress .
The first automobiles drove on this road in 1891. Over a century after it was built, the fact that the road was regularly impassable by landslides forced the municipality to work out an alternative project that could safely cope with increasingly heavy traffic.
In 1982 the two 1120 m and 3600 m long tunnels from Riva up into the Ledro valley were opened. As a result, the lower part of Ponale Street, which was no longer necessary, was closed. The section between the Ledro valley and Pregasina remained passable for motorists until 1998, another tunnel was opened between the Ledro valley and Pregasina. From this point on, the entire Ponale road was officially closed, but was still used by mountain bikers and hikers.
In 2000 there was a landslide on Ponale Street, which resulted in several deaths. As a result, the barriers at the entrances were tightened significantly. However, mountain bikers were still able to bypass or disable the barriers so that they could continue to use Ponale road.
After extensive reconstruction work, in which around € 820,000 was invested, Ponalestrasse was reopened as a cycle and footpath in July 2004 and has been numbered D01 ever since. Since then, hikers and mountain bikers have been able to use the Ponale road again without restrictions.
In June 2014 the old Ponale Alto Belvedere rest stop on Ponalestrasse was reopened for its 100th anniversary.
literature
- Nicola Fontana: La regione fortezza. Il sistema fortificato del Tirolo: pianificazione, cantieri e militarizzazione del territorio da Francesco I alla Grande Guerra. Museo Storico Italiano della Guerra , Rovereto 2016.
- Danilo Mussi: Dall'Ampola al Ponale: “storia” e “storie” sulle strade e sugli accessi della valle di Ledro. Cassa Rurale di Ledro, Bezzecca 2001.
- Bernardino Toniatti: Pregasina e la sua storia. Grafica 5, Arco 2015, ISBN 978-88-89521-36-6
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Bernardino Toniatti: Pregasina e la sua storia. P. 71
- ↑ Origin G. Cis
- ^ Nicola Fontana: La regione fortezza. Il sistema fortificato del Tirolo: pianificazione, cantieri e militarizzazione del territorio da Francesco I alla Grande Guerra pp. 94-108, 206-211.
- ↑ a b Modern history from 1993
- ↑ Reopening 2 ( Memento from July 30, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
Coordinates: 45 ° 51 ′ 43.8 " N , 10 ° 49 ′ 51.9" E