Schöllenen Gorge
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Script error: No such module "Multiple image". Schöllenen Gorge (Template:Langx) is a gorge formed by the upper Reuss in the Swiss canton of Uri between the towns of Göschenen to the north and Andermatt to the south. It provides access to the St Gotthard Pass.
Enclosed by sheer granite walls, its road and railway require several spectacular bridges and tunnels, of which the most famous is a stone bridge known as the Teufelsbrücke ("Devil's Bridge").
Geology
Script error: No such module "labelled list hatnote". The lower Urseren marks the boundary of the Aar massif with the autochthonous sediment of the Gotthard nappe ("Urseren-Zone"). In Altkirch quarry, on the southern end of the gorge, Triassic and Jurassic sediments are exposed. In the Schöllenen Gorge (at the Urnerloch tunnel), the Reuss enters the crystalline Aar massif (Aar granite), the gorge itself being an exemplary late alpine fluvial Water gap.[1]
History
Early history
The name of the gorge is from Rumantsch Script error: No such module "Lang". 'stairs, steps', recorded in German as Script error: No such module "Lang". in 1420.[2] It formed the upper limit of Alemannic settlement in the Alps prior to the 12th century, and the border between the bishoprics of Constance and Raetia Curensis.
The gorge appears to have been passable by a difficult footpath by the mid-12th century. This path was forced to avoid the southern part of the gorge, taking a steep ascent from Script error: No such module "Lang"., climbing above 1,800 m before descending to Hospental via Script error: No such module "Lang".. The eponymous Script error: No such module "Lang". presumably referred to steps hewn into the rock to facilitate the ascent.[3]
The gorge was first opened up as a bridle path with the construction of a wooden bridge in c. 1230 (before 1234). This was of great strategic importance because it opened the Gotthard Pass, with historical consequences both regionally and to the Italian politics of the Holy Roman Empire.[4]
The original bridle path across Schöllenen was realised by means of a wooden ledge attached to the rock wall, known as Script error: No such module "Lang"., and a wooden bridge across the gorge, recorded as Script error: No such module "Lang". 'spray bridge' in 1306. The Script error: No such module "Lang". (from Script error: No such module "Lang". 'across, athwart'[5]) rested on beams laid across the gorge. A tradition imagining it as supported by hanging chains developed only after its collapse in the 18th century.[6] The technology associated with the construction of the Script error: No such module "Lang". is attributed to the Walser, who are known to have begun settlement in Urseren still in the 12th century.[7] 16th-century historiography attributes the construction of the bridge to one Heini (Heinrich), blacksmith in Göschenen. Robert Schedler published a historical novel surrounding the construction of the Schöllenen bridle path, Script error: No such module "Lang"., in 1919.
Devil's Bridge legend
In Early Modern Switzerland, a legend developed which attributed the construction of the bridge to the Devil. This is a motif attached to numerous old bridges in Europe (see Devil's Bridge for a comparative account). The name Script error: No such module "Lang". ("Devil's Bridge", modern German: Script error: No such module "Lang".) is first recorded in 1587.[8]
The legend is related by Johann Jakob Scheuchzer (1716). According to Scheuchzer, he was told a local legend according to which the people of Uri recruited the Devil for the difficult task of building the bridge. The Devil requested to receive the first thing to pass the bridge in exchange for his help. To trick the Devil, who expected to receive the soul of the first man to pass the bridge, the people of Uri sent across a dog by throwing a piece of bread, and the dog was promptly torn to pieces by the Devil. Enraged at having been tricked the Devil went to fetch a large rock to smash the bridge, but, carrying the rock back to the bridge, he came across a holy man who "scolded him" (Script error: No such module "Lang".) and forced him to drop the rock, which could still be seen on the path below Göschenen.[9] A modern retelling was published by Meinrad Lienert, Script error: No such module "Lang". (1915). According to Lienert's version, a goat was sent across the bridge instead of a dog, and instead of the holy man, the Devil, when he was taking a break exhausted from carrying the rock, came across an old woman who marked the rock with a cross, forcing the Devil to abandon it and flee.
The legend does not appear to have existed before the 16th century, and its origin in local tradition is uncertain. Lauf-Belart (1924) surmised that the name Script error: No such module "Lang". was originally due to an erroneous interpretation by learned travellers, which only in the 17th century gave rise to the local legend involving the Devil.[10]
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The Devil's Stone (Script error: No such module "Lang".) is a large block of granite near Göschenen, with a height of c. 12 m and a mass of c. 2200 tons. In 1887, it was sold to the Script error: No such module "Lang". for 80 francs. Painted yellow, it now served as an advertisement for chocolate. In 1923, there were plans to demolish it, but it was preserved on the initiative of Max Oechslin, president of Script error: No such module "Lang".. In 1970, the Devil's Stone was again scheduled for destruction, to make way for the N2 motorway. This time, there was a broad movement to preserve it, and in 1971, federal authorities agreed to move the stone, with projected costs of 250,000 francs (of which the canton of Uri was to contribute 7,000). This led to a popular campaign opposing the plan because the cost was seen as excessive. The liberal newspaper Gotthard-Post proposed to spend the money on the construction of a retirement home instead, collecting 1,000 signatures in support. The cantonal government now argued that there was no legal basis for the destruction of the stone because it had been the property of Script error: No such module "Lang". since 1925. On 1 September 1972, the Federal Council finally agreed to moving the stone, and it was moved 127 metres in an operation costing CHF 335,000.[11] It is now situated on the ramp of exit 40 (Göschenen) of the motorway, at the entrance of Gotthard Road Tunnel, visible both from the railway and from the motorway.
Early modern history
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In 1595, the wooden Script error: No such module "Lang". bridge was replaced by a stone bridge which came to be known as Devil's Bridge (Template:Langx).
On St Patrick's Day (17 March) 1608, Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, was fleeing from Ulster to Rome with 98 of his fellow-Gaels. As they crossed the Devil's Bridge, one of the horses carrying his fortune plunged into the torrent below; the horse was recovered, but not the gold, which was lost in the raging torrent.[12][13]
A new road, including a tunnel with a length c.Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Template:Cvt,[14] replacing the Script error: No such module "Lang". was built in 1707/08. The tunnel, constructed by Template:Ill (1660–1737) and known as the Script error: No such module "Lang". ("Uri Hole"), was the first road-tunnel to be built in the Alps. Following its construction, the Script error: No such module "Lang". was no longer maintained and was allowed to collapse.
Hans Rudolf Schinz in 1783 mentions another bridge, marking the border between Uri and Urseren, known as Script error: No such module "Lang". or Script error: No such module "Lang"..[15]
In September 1799, the Script error: No such module "Lang". became one of the sites of the battles at the Saint-Gotthard, and one of the most dramatic battles of Suvorov's Italian and Swiss expedition during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The bridge was heavily damaged by the retreating French army. As a result, the route's trade with Italy shifted to the Splügenpass. In the 1890s, the Russian Empire commissioned the Template:Ill, just south of the Devil's Bridge.
Modern engineering
A replacement cut stone bridge was planned and executed by Karl Emanuel Müller (1804–1869), the cantonal engineer in charge of the stretch of the new Gotthard road between Göschenen and Hospental. Construction took 10 years, and was the subject of a famous painting by Karl Blechen in 1830–1832. The new bridge allowed (single-lane) motorized traffic, potentially opening the Gotthard Pass to automobiles. The 1595 bridge fell out of use after the completion of the second bridge in 1830, and it collapsed in 1888.
The Gotthard railway project of 1872 avoided the Schöllenen Gorge by building the Gotthard Rail Tunnel under it, but the Schöllenenbahn, a rack railway, was built through the gorge in 1917. The modern road bridge and tunnel date to 1958. It served as the main road across the Central Alps during the 1960s and 1970s, but since the construction of the Gotthard Road Tunnel in 1980, it has only been of regional importance, connecting Uri with canton of Valais and the Surselva.
References
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- ↑ Aaregranit in der Schöllenen und gotthardmassivische Sedimente, Géotope suisse n°302 (2012).
- ↑ The modern spelling with ö is a hypercorrection based on the phonology of the dialect of Uri, as in Göschenen < *cascina. It is unclear whether the -d- in the forms Schellenden and Geschenden is anaptyctic or if it represents a Rumantsch suffix complex *-ione-ata- (as it were *skal-ion-ata- > *skalinda > schellenden; RN 2, 1033). A popular etymology connecting German schellen 'to ring, resound' is reported by Brandstetter, 'Urseren', Vaterland 69 (1907). ortsnamen.chTemplate:Fcn
- ↑ Script error: No such module "Lang". Muheim, Strassenbau-Politik (1945), p. 24.
- ↑ The construction of the bridle path dates to "the first third of the 13th century", most likely to 1225/26, certainly by 1230. The chapel to St Gotthard on the pass was consecrated in 1230. In 1231, Henry VII granted imperial immediacy to Uri in order to remove this now-important strategic asset from Habsburg influence. The first contemporary account of a crossing of the pass dates to 1236 (Albert of Stade). By 1237, there was a hospice and substantial traffic. Egli, Emil, Script error: No such module "Lang"., Script error: No such module "Lang". 46 (1991), 60–66.
- ↑ Alois Kocher, Script error: No such module "Lang". (1951), p. 84
- ↑ Helmut Stalder, Script error: No such module "Lang"., Orell Füssli (2003), p. 29. Script error: No such module "Lang". (Hans Rudolf Schinz, 1783).
- ↑ Script error: No such module "Lang". (Stadler 2011)
- ↑ In 1574 recorded as Script error: No such module "Lang".. Simler, Script error: No such module "Lang"., p. 102. The 1587 reference is Ryff, Script error: No such module "Lang".: Script error: No such module "Lang".
- ↑ Johann Jakob Scheuchzer, Script error: No such module "Lang". vol. 2 (1747 [1716]), p. 94.
- ↑ Script error: No such module "Lang". Lauf-Belart, Script error: No such module "Lang"., 1924 p. 165f.
- ↑ Tyfelsbrigg, Freilichtspiele Andermatt (2013), p. 28
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Ó Cianáin, Tadhg. "The Flight of the Earls"
- ↑ The length of the Urnerloch is variously reported as Template:Cvt, Template:Cvt or Template:Cvt.
- ↑ Hans Rudolf Schinz, Script error: No such module "Lang". (Zurich, 1783), p. 29.
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- Hans Stadler: Schöllenen in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.Script error: No such module "TemplatePar".Script error: No such module "TemplatePar".
- R. Laur-Belart, Studien zur Eröffnungsgeschichte des Gotthardpasses (1924)
- R. Gisler-Pfrunder, Die Teufelsbrücke am St. Gotthard (2005)