Tonale Pass

Passo del Tonale / Tonale Pass
Memorial with ossuary (Italian Ossario) for Italian soldiers who died on the Tonale Pass during the First World War
Compass direction	west	east
Pass height	1882  m slm
Ital. Province Region:	Brescia Lombardy	Trentino T.-South Tyrol
Watershed	Oglio → Po	Vermigliana → Noce → Etsch
Valley locations	Ponte di Legno , Edolo ( Valcamonica )	Cles ( Val di Sole , Non Valley )
expansion	Strada Statale 42 del Tonale e della Mendola
Built	1854-1856
Mountains	Ortler group (north) Adamello-Presanella-Alps (south)
map
Coordinates	46 ° 15 '29 "  N , 10 ° 34' 51"  E Coordinates: 46 ° 15 '29 "  N , 10 ° 34' 51"  E

The Tonale Pass ( Italian Passo del Tonale , German obsolete: Tunöl Pass ) is an 1882  m slm high Alpine pass in Italy , about halfway between Trento and the Bernina group ( border with Switzerland ). The pass is crossed by Strada Statale 42 del Tonale e della Mendola .

location

The pass separates the Lombardy Valcamonica in the west from the Val di Sole ( Sulztal ), a side valley of the Non Valley , in Trentino in the east. These two valleys form the Tonale Line , the western part of the Periadriatic Seam , an active geological fault line that continues east to Friuli and Slovenia.

The pass lies on the watershed between the Po (the waters that flow west) and the Adige (the waters that flow east).

To the south of the Tonale pass, the Adamello group joins the mountain range of Presanella , further to the north the Ortler group . From the pass and a few kilometers in front of it you have a magnificent view to the south - Paradiso 2600 m and in 10–15 km the peaks around the Adamello (3,554 m) - while 3 km north are the two peaks of Monte Tonale (2,700 m) .

On the pass is an Italian war memorial ( Monumento Ossario ), a church and the Albergo della Vittoria ("Gasthof zum Sieg").

history

In October – November 1166, the Hohenstaufen emperor Friedrich I moved to Italy again to subdue the rebellious Italians. When the Guelph Veronese closed the Veronese hermitage, the emperor bypassed it by going over the Tonale Pass and reaching Lombardy via the Valcamonica. Otherwise, however, the Tonale Pass was more important for trade. But it was, at least from the late Middle Ages, even international and extremely important. A hospice ( 1971  m ) to the northeast above the actual pass reminds of the importance that the Tonale once had in the Middle Ages . The old mule track once ran along here, which is why the hospice with a Romanesque San Bartolomeo chapel was built at this point.

From 1854 to 1856 the old mule track over the Tonale pass was replaced by a modern road (planning by Anton Geppert ), which was initially built primarily for military reasons. After the road over the Mendel Pass was completed in 1887 and the one over the Gampenjoch in 1938, this ultimately also upgraded the Tonale Pass. The Tonale Pass missed a further upgrade when a planned narrow-gauge railway between Tirano and Malè , which was to cross the Tonale Pass in addition to the Apricapass , was not built.

Battle of Vittorio Veneto, Tonale to the west

The pass used to be the border between Lombardy in the west and Tyrol in the east. In the Sardinian War in 1859 Austria lost its rule over Lombardy . This made the pass the border between Italy and Austria until the First World War .

First World War

On the ascent from Val di Sole to the pass are the ruins of the Austro-Hungarian Tonale barrier .

During the mountain war of 1915–1918 , the pass was then part of the war front between Italy and Austria-Hungary. In the summer of 1918 the Austrians carried out a mock attack here, the Avalanche Company , in order to divert attention from the planned attack in the east in the course of the second Battle of the Piave .

In the turmoil of the last days of the First World War, Italian troops also advanced over the Tonale Pass east into the Val di Non, cut off Austro-Hungarian troops and took them prisoner. This happened in the wake of the battle of Vittorio Veneto, which was victorious for Italy, and the armistice of Villa Giusti .

Today the pass forms the border between the Italian regions of Trentino-Alto Adige in the east and Lombardy in the west.

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  Austria / Italy border crossing on the Tonale Pass in 1902

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  Austrian fortress Tonale

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  Austrian fortress Presanella on the Tonale Pass

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  Tonale pass in summer

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  Snow-covered Pass of the Tonale

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  View of the main street in the village with a passport sign

Web links

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

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Webgis Trentino
2. ^ Regesta Imperii IV. 2/1, Vienna-Cologne: Böhlau 1991, p. 259.
3. ↑ Steffan Bruns: Alpine passes - history of the alpine pass crossings. The passes on both sides of the Brenner route . tape 1 . L. Staackmann Verlag, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-88675-256-0 , p. 93 .