Brenner Pass

Brenner Pass
The "Europabrücke" ("Europe Bridge"), 25km north of the summit of Brenner Pass, with Habicht (3277 m) in the back.
Elevation	1,370 metres (4,500 ft)
Location	Austria /  Italy
Range	Alps
Coordinates	47°0′12″N 11°30′27″E / 47.00333°N 11.5075°E / 47.00333; 11.5075
Traversed by	E45 motorway

Brenner Pass (Italian: Passo del Brennero; German: Brennerpass) is a mountain pass through the Alps along the border between Italy and Austria, and is one of the principal passes of the Alps. It is the lowest (1,370 m) and easiest of the Alpine passes, and one of the few in the area. For that reason possession of the pass has long been coveted.

Below the pass, high Alpine pastures have been used by dairy cattle for summer grazing, making space available at lower altitudes for cultivating and harvesting hay for winter fodder. Many of the high pastures are at altitudes over 1,000 meters.

The central section, the Brenner Pass itself, covers the track between Sterzing and Matrei, through the village of Brenner.

Etymology

Prenner was originally the name of a nearby farm which derived from its former owner. The farm of a certain Prennerius is mentioned in documents in 1288, a certain Chunradus Prenner de Mittenwalde is mentioned in 1299. The name Prenner is traced back to the German word for somebody who clears woodland. A name for the pass itself appears for the first time in 1328 as ob dem Prenner (German for above the Prenner).^[1]

History

The Romans regularized the already traditional crossing.^[2] The first Roman road connecting Italy with the province of Raetia north of the Alps, Via Claudia Augusta, was finished in 46-47 AD, but it did not cross the Brenner. The road started in Verona and followed the Adige valley to the Reschen Pass from where it descended into the Inn valley and from there over the Fern Pass to Augusta Vindelicorum (Augsburg). Not until the 2nd century AD was a road over the Brenner Pass opened: coming through the Pustertal, the road crossed the Brenner and descended from there to Veldidena (today Wilten), where it crossed the Inn and then the Zirler Berg towards Partenkirchen and on to Augusta Vindelicorum.

The Alamanni crossed the Brenner Pass southward into Italy in 268 AD, to be stopped in November at the Battle of Lake Benacus.^[3]

The pass was a trackway for mule trains and carts until a carriage road was opened in 1777. The railway was completed in 1867 and is the only transalpine rail route without a major tunnel. Since the end of World War I in 1918, when international borders shifted, control of the pass has been shared between Italy and Austria. Until then, both sides of the pass had been within the Habsburg-ruled Austro-Hungarian Empire. During World War II, the German leader Adolf Hitler and the Italian leader Benito Mussolini met there to celebrate their Pact of Steel on 18 March 1940.

Roadways

The motorway E 45 (European designation; in Italy A 22, in Austria also called A 13) leading from Innsbruck via Bolzano to Verona and Modena uses this pass, and is one of the most important north-south connections in Europe. Even with the removal of customs, the long traffic jams before the Brenner Pass are dreaded by Northern Europeans who want to spend their holidays on the Mediterranean coast.

The Europabrücke (Bridge Europe), located just outside of Innsbruck and a few kilometers north of the Brenner Pass, is a large concrete bridge carrying the six-lane autobahn over the valley of the Sill River. At a height of 180 meters and a length of 820 meters, it was celebrated as a masterpiece of engineering upon its completion in 1963.

The heavy freight traffic traveling through the Inn Valley to reach the Brenner Pass, polluting this scenic area, causes much debate in regional and European politics. About 1.8 million trucks crossed the Europa Bridge in 2004.^[4]

In order to ease the road traffic, there are plans to upgrade the railroad from Verona to Innsbruck with a series of tunnels, including the Brenner Base Tunnel under the Brenner Pass.^[5] Work started in 2006.

Tolls are collected at Brenner Pass for traffic going to and coming from Italy. The fee starts at €7.95 each way.

See also

• Principal passes of the Alps

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Brennerpass

• Webcam Brenner Pass

Coordinates: 47°0′12″N 11°30′27″E / 47.00333°N 11.5075°E / 47.00333; 11.5075