Gotthard Pass

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  (Redirected from St. Gotthard Pass)
Jump to: navigation, search
Gotthard Pass
Passo del San Gottardo
Gotthard's Hospice and Museum
Elevation 2,106 m (6,909 ft)
Traversed by 2
Location Ticino, Switzerland
(near Uri)
Range Lepontine Alps
Coordinates 46°33′32″N 8°33′43″E﻿ / ﻿46.55889°N 8.56194°E﻿ / 46.55889; 8.56194Coordinates: 46°33′32″N 8°33′43″E﻿ / ﻿46.55889°N 8.56194°E﻿ / 46.55889; 8.56194
Gotthard Pass is located in Switzerland
Gotthard Pass
Location in Switzerland

The Gotthard Pass or St. Gotthard Pass (Italian: Passo del San Gottardo) (el. 2106 m) is a mountain pass in the Alps, connecting northern to southern Switzerland. The pass lies between Airolo in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino, and Göschenen in the German-speaking canton of Uri, and connects further Bellinzona to Lucerne. The region of the Gotthard Pass is an important north-south axis in Europe and is crossed by three major traffic tunnels, each being the world's longest at the time of their construction: the Gotthard Rail Tunnel (1882), the Gotthard Road Tunnel (1980) and the Gotthard Base Tunnel (2016).




The hospice (Italian: Ospizio) is located south of the pass at 2,091 m, near the Lago della Piazza and other small lakes. Lago di Lucendro and Lago Sella are larger reservoir lakes accessible from the pass.

The Devil's Bridge[edit]

Main article: Teufelsbrücke
The modern concrete span of the Devil's Bridge (Teufelsbrücke) showing the older bridge below.

The pass can be reached by crossing the Schöllenenschlucht and several bridges have been built across the Reuss to facilitate this. According to the oral histories of the nearby villages, seasonal deaths resulting from drowning reached a peak in April–May of most years and thus a safer crossing was required[citation needed]. The original bridge (the Teufelsbrücke) built under these challenging conditions was one of so many "devil's bridges" that the legends about them form a category in the Aarne-Thompson classification system for folktales (number 1191).




View of Airolo from Gotthard Pass

Several tunnels provide access through the pass. The 15 km Gotthard Rail Tunnel was the first and opened in 1882 for railway traffic at a cost of around 200 workers' lives (there is uncertainty as to the exact toll). It replaced the pass road, connecting Göschenen with Airolo.[1]

A 17 km motorway tunnel, the Gotthard Road Tunnel opened in 1980. It was closed for two months in 2001 following a fatal fire.

A second rail tunnel through the pass, the Gotthard Base Tunnel, is currently under construction. When completed, it will be the longest rail tunnel in the world at 57 km. This tunnel, combined with two shorter tunnels planned near Zürich and Lugano as part of the AlpTransit initiative, will reduce the 3 hour 40 min rail journey from Zürich to Milan by one hour, while increasing the size and number of trains that can operate along the route because the line is nearly level, compared with the spirals of the older tunnel.



In popular culture[edit]


See also[edit]




External links[edit]