The Alpine Road over the Stelvio Pass: Distances and Description of the Province of Sondrio

Appendix.

The Alpine Road over the Stelvio Pass. 5/6

(Continuation.)

The postal sleighs take ten hours from Bormio to Mals, and from Mals to Bormio a few minutes more. The mounted mail covers the journey from Milan to Mals (approximately 256,000 metres or 33 ⅔ Lower Austrian postal miles) in 34 hours, 8 hours of which are spent on the passage across Lake Como from Lecco to Colico, which has now been reduced to 5 hours by means of the daily steamboat *).

Her Majesty the Duchess of Parma, Marie Louise, traveled over this new road on 11 October 1826 with an entourage of several sleighs drawn by four, six, and up to eight horses, almost always at a trot and even around the sharpest bends, where one would not have believed that so many horses could be employed.

This is not the place to expound upon the political, military, and commercial importance of the road; but one may boldly assert that, as one of the most daring undertakings, it stands unique of its kind, and even if in terms of beauty it cannot be compared with other similar structures of our time, in its entirety, as regards utility, safety, and convenience, it retains precedence over all others. Moreover, when taking into account the difficulties to be overcome, no other road has been built in so short a time and at so little expense. The section of the road from Bormio to Prad was completed in 4 years, although work on it was only possible for 4 or 5 months of the year. The master builders were the engineers Carlo Donegani and Francesco de Dominici.

At the conclusion of this article we provide an overview of the length of the individual sections of the road and of the elevation above sea level of its principal points.

A.

From Milan to Lecco . . 54,929 m (7.234 L. A. p. m.)

“ Lecco to Colico . . . 41,790 „ (5.508 „ „ )

“ Colico to Sondrio . . 45,875 „ (6 „ „ )

“ Sondrio to Tirano . 26,629 „ (3.50 „ „ )

“ Tirano to Bormio . . 38,632 „ (5.087 „ „ )

“ Bormio to the Stelvio

Pass . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20,400 „ (2.686 „ „ )

“ Stelvio Pass to Bivio

di Prad . . . . . . . . . . 24,400 „ (3.213 „ „ )

“ Bivio di Prad to the

junction point with

the Mals postal road 3,311 „ (0.436 „ „ )

Total 255,666 m (33.671 L. A. p. m.)

B.

Milan (the Botanical Garden) lies

above the Mediterranean Sea . . 128 m (394 P. ft.)

Lake Lario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 „ (655 „ „ )

Sondrio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349 „ (1074 „ „ )

Tirano . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469 „ (1443 „ „ )

Bormio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1250 „ (3848 „ „ )

Stelvio Pass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2814 „ (8662 „ „ )

Bivio di Prad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 973 „ (2995 „ „ )

Spanding Bridge across the Adige . . . . . . . 923 „ (2841 „ „ )

As an appendix to the preceding essay, there follow here some statistical notices concerning the Province of Sondrio, belonging to the Government of Milan of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia, through which the new Alpine road runs **).

The Province of Sondrio has 81,000 inhabitants and consists of one city, five market towns (borghi), 79 municipalities (comuni), and 189 parish or vicarial villages. To the south it borders the provinces of Bergamo and Como, to the west and north the Swiss cantons of Ticino and Graubünden, and to the east Tyrol.

Since a large part of the province's territory is traversed by the undiked rivers Adda and Mera (Maira), it presents large marshes in their vicinity, which extend from the environs of Colico almost to Sondrio. The putrid vapours exhaled by such a volume of standing water almost in the centre of the country have a detrimental effect on the health of the inhabitants, giving rise in particular to stubborn intermittent fevers. The warm, stagnant, and humid air prevailing in several districts also becomes the source of many local ailments, notably rickets, goitres, and cretinism. It cannot be denied, however, that cramped and damp dwellings, poor food, the neglect of bodily cleanliness, as well as excessive exertion at work from tender youth or during pregnancy and confinement must likewise be regarded as contributing factors to these diseases. The districts of Morbegno, Traona, Sondrio, and Chiavenna have hitherto suffered most from the harmful influences of the surrounding marshes ***).

As regards agriculture in the province, viticulture is the branch to which the inhabitants devote the greatest diligence. However, since little suitable land is available in the plains, the mountain slopes had to be utilized, not without great labour and expense, now presenting the spectacle of numerous splendid vineyards rising one above another on stone terraces. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that viticulture is pursued with somewhat exaggerated partiality, at least in many places where it would be far more profitable to grow grain, of which the Valtellina suffers great scarcity. The flourishing of agriculture is especially hindered by the ancient practice of excessive division of property upon inheritance. Every single heir is exceedingly jealous of the portion due to him, even should it be no larger than a square fathom. Not only does this parceling of the land make any economic enterprise requiring a relatively larger plot of land impossible, but a great deal of soil that could otherwise be sown and planted is also lost through the multitude of footpaths and enclosures of the individual strips.

Silk cultivation is quite insignificant in this province. The severity of the climate in the higher reaches of the Chiavenna district and throughout the Bormio district entirely precludes the planting of mulberry trees, and even if special care is devoted to the cultivation of this valuable plant in individual places, the province nevertheless lags far behind its neighbours in this respect. As is well known, the rearing of silkworms requires spacious, airy, and clean buildings. The huts of the local peasantry, however, are so cramped and filthy that they hardly deserve the name of human dwellings. (Conclusion to follow.)

*) From Lecco to Colico the road was not yet completed until the year 1827; it is probable, however, that it is finished by now.

**) We borrow these from the small treatise published in Milan in 1823: Descrizione della Valtellina e delle grandiose strade di Stelvio e di Spluga. D. A. M. M. Concerning the Stelvio road itself, which was not yet finished at that time, it provides less information than the article from the Bibl. ital. upon which our essay is based.

***) It has already been stated above that in recent years work began on draining the marshes and transforming them into fertile land, so that before long these districts may be counted among the healthier ones.