Gotthard Pass

The Gotthard Pass crosses the Swiss Alps at 2,107 metres and links Andermatt, in the canton of Uri, to Airolo, in the canton of Ticino. The high point is not a narrow notch but a wide glacial basin strewn with lakes and granite slabs, holding the former hospice, a hotel, a restaurant, a shop and a museum. A retaining dam was built in this basin.

Two roads run down from the summit to Airolo: the tremola vecchia, the old one, almost entirely cobbled, and the more recent tremola nuova. The name of the pass refers to Godehard of Hildesheim; the crossing itself is thought to have opened around 1220, helped by the building of the Devil's Bridge. Its advantage over the other central Alpine passes lay in a relatively low altitude and in short, easy approach valleys.

This shortcut mattered. It carried most of the direct exchange between northern Switzerland, Ticino and Italy, linking the Po plain to northern Europe and contributing to the prosperity of Milan as much as of Zurich. The canton of Uri gained a new importance from it, and possible transit dues: its dependence on Rudolf II of Habsburg, count of Zurich, was bought back in 1231 in the name of Frederick II, and imperial immediacy was granted to it. The first confederation of cantons took shape at the end of the thirteenth century around Lake Lucerne and towards Ticino — the pass is not unconnected to it.

The buildings at the pass keep the trace of that long use. A small sanctuary was raised in the ninth or tenth century, a chapel was consecrated in 1230, and the hospice is first recorded in 1237. After an avalanche in 1774 the building was rebuilt in stone and given an octagonal stable. The old souste, built from 1834 to 1837 to plans by Domenico Fontana and recognisable by its arcaded portico, served as a customs post and goods depot before taking in wealthy travellers from 1866; it now houses the Gotthard national museum.

Why this place is remarkable

The Gotthard owes its place to a favourable geometry rather than to height: only 2,107 metres, a line lower than that of the neighbouring central Alpine passes, and short approach valleys on both sides. The place held artists as much as merchants: Goethe stayed with the Capuchins here in November 1779 and gave the pass a passage of his Letters from Switzerland; Turner painted it in watercolour in 1842-1843. The Tour de Suisse, for its part, crossed it thirty-seven times between 1933 and 2014.

History and origin

The hospice changed hands several times. Capuchin fathers administered it; Federico Borromeo installed a priest there in 1602, then had a house built for travellers between 1623 and 1629. The Albergo Monte Prosa, raised to plans by A. Regli, opened in 1886. In the twentieth century the pass also became a military position: the Sasso da Pigna artillery fort was built in 1941 and 1942, and has since been turned into a museum. During the second half of that century, the Swiss army dumped obsolete munitions in the lake near the pass.