Septimer

This article covers the Septimer pass. For the grape variety see Septimer (grape variety)

Septimer Pass (Pass da Sett / Passo del Settimo)
Descent from the Septimerpass on the south side, in the background the southern Bergell mountains .
Compass direction	North	south
Pass height	2310  m above sea level M.
Valleys: Canton, Country:	Oberhalbstein / Bergell Graubünden , Switzerland
Valley locations	Bivio ( 1769  m above sea level )	Casaccia ( 1458  m above sea level )
expansion	Mule track (medieval " Roman road ")
Mountains	Oberhalbsteiner Alps (W) Albula Alps (O)
particularities	known from Roman times
profile
Ø pitch	9% (541 m / 6 km)	21.3% (852 m / 4 km)
Map (Graubünden)
Coordinates	769 062  /  143330 coordinates: 46 ° 25 '12 "  N , 9 ° 38' 17"  O ; CH1903:  769,062  /  143330

The Septimer Pass ( Rhaeto-Romanic Pass da Sett , Italian Passo del Settimo ) is an Alpine pass in the Swiss canton of Graubünden . With a peak height of 2310  m it connects the valleys Oberhalbstein (north) with Bergell (south) and separates the Oberhalbstein Alps ( west ) from the Albula Alps ( east ).

Location and development

The air distance to the pass locations is six kilometers to Bivio (located at 1769  m ) and four kilometers to Casaccia ( 1458  m ). At the top of the pass, the European watershed runs between the catchment areas of the Rhine and Po . Two more passes can be crossed from the Septimerpass: to the west the Forcellina ( 2672  m ) into the Avers , to the east the Lunghinpass ( 2645  m ) into the Upper Engadin .

The pass, which was once important but not developed as a modern road, is now only crossed by hikers and mountain bikers in the summer months. The area from Bivio to the top of the pass is mainly used by the Swiss military as a shooting and practice area.

history

Historic pass road on the south side

The pass has been one of the most important alpine crossings at least since Roman times . Its advantages were the favorable location with a direct north-south connection and the favorable topography , which did not cause major problems for the road builders.

During excavations in 2007/2008, a Roman encampment from the Augustan imperial period was discovered at 2340  m directly above the pass path . It offered space for three units, each about 200 men strong. Numerous finds, including Roman slingshot , tent pegs and coins , suggest that the camp was 16 BC. In preparation for the Alpine campaign in 15 BC Was built and was then occupied in the summer months until the second decade. The soldiers were probably supposed to militarily secure and maintain the Septimer Pass as an important supply route for the Roman army operating north of the Alps . After Emperor Tiberius gave up the conquest of Germania on the right bank of the Rhine ( Germania magna ) in 16/17 AD and accepted the Rhine as the border, the Roman army in the north initially had no more warlike tasks. The costly replenishment deliveries became superfluous and with them the army camp on the Septimer pass .

The ownership of the entire Septimer route from Chur to Chiavenna, including the associated customs revenue, formed the power base of the Chur bishop since 960 . Merchants and armies, kings and emperors , for example Otto the Great in 961 and Friedrich Barbarossa in 1164, crossed the pass - in the High Middle Ages the most important transit connection across the Alps alongside the Great St. Bernhard and Brenner . The Tgesa da Sett hospice with chapel at the top of the pass was built or renovated around 1100. In 1387 the bishop commissioned the Bergell nobleman Jakob von Castelmur to develop the pass into a passable road ( “because he wants to make a way and lantstrasse over the above mountain [...] and buwen sol, so that one should weigh over it and may change ” ); in turn, this claim had 10 years weglösi . The organization of the transport was carried out by Porten Lenz , Tinizong , Stalla and Bergell Sopraporta.

With the opening of the Viamala in 1473, however, the competing Untere Strasse over the Splügenpass gained in importance compared to the Obere Strasse over the Septimer, and due to a lack of maintenance the road sank back down to the mule track . After pastureland was increasingly gained through clearing since the late Middle Ages, the risk of falling rocks and avalanches increased. Because of the slope traversing on Piz Blanch on the south side of the pass, which is particularly feared in winter, regional traffic also increasingly shifted to the much safer parallel route over the Julier and Maloja passes . When a road across the Julier was built in 1820, the Septimer was completely sidelined and the newly built hospice in 1646 fell into disrepair.

The paved lane from 1387 and a later variant of the path - built around 1800 according to Armon Planta's assumption - have in sections been very well preserved. Particularly impressive are the passage on Säscel battue (hewn stone) and, below it which Cranch (sweeping) with which the road to Val Maroz descends.

From 1938 onwards, the Septimer barrier was built a little south of the pass , consisting of four machine gun positions housed in caverns . The blocking point was intended to prevent infantry formations from advancing north from Bergell and thus avoiding the blocking points Julier and Maloja . The lock point was abandoned in the 1990s as part of the Army 95 concept .

literature

• Guido Lisignoli: Bergell - The most beautiful hikes . Lyasis Publishing House, Sondrio.
• Carl Paul: Hike on August 7, 1882 on the Roman road over the Septimer Pass . 1882, p. 83-89 ( gaebler.info [PDF]).

On the historical significance:

• Ingrid H. Ringel: The Septimer - Perception and Representation of an Alpine Pass in the Middle Ages. Commission publisher Desertina, Chur 2011, ISBN 978-3-85637-404-4 .
• Armon Planta: Traffic routes in ancient Raetia . tape 2 . Terra Grischuna Verlag, Chur 1986, ISBN 3-908133-22-X .
• Maria Strasser-Lattner: The trade across the Bündner passes between Upper Germany and Upper Italy in the late Middle Ages . Master's thesis, University of Konstanz. Konstanz 2004 ( full text , ub.uni-konstanz.de).
• Werner Zanier : The Roman Alpine Campaign over the Septimer 15 BC Chr. In: AkademieAktuell . Journal of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. No. 3/2006 , 2006, ISSN  1436-753X , p. 28–31 ( badw.de [PDF]).
• Jürg Simonett: Septimer pass. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . December 9, 2016 .

Web links

Commons : Septimerpass  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Mountain hike from Maloja over the Lunghin Pass to the Septimer
• Website of the Septimerstrasse / Via Sett

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Piz Forcellina on ETHorama
2. ↑ Terra Grischuna 6/2011: Throwing lead, pilum points and halberd axes
3. ^ Thomas Kühtreiber : Street and Castle. Notes on a complex relationship . In: Kornelia Holzner-Tobisch, Thomas Kühtreiber, Gertrud Blaschitz (eds.): The complexity of the street. Continuity and change in the Middle Ages and early modern times (=  publications by the Institute for Realienkunde of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age ). tape 22 . Vienna 2012, chap. Burg und Zollstätten: Case studies in a comparison of the history of writing and building history (p. 284), p. 263–301 ( text on academia.edu ).
4. ↑ Locking point Septimer at the fortress museum Crestawald (accessed on October 12, 2012).