Simplon-Village, Gondo and the Pass
26 August 2022
The village of Simplon (Simplon-Dorf), the namesake of the famous pass in the canton of Valais, has about 300 inhabitants today. The architecture of the place has Italian features, but German-speaking Walser emigrants mark the language. They settled in this region and the villages of Simplon and Gondo, today’s border town with Italy, from Oberwallis at the end of the 12th century.
Two great personalities influenced the development of the village: Kaspar von Stockalper (1609-1691) and Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821). The Ecomuseum Simplon provides extensive information about them.
The Simplon Pass was already used as a trade route and passenger transport in Roman times. The pass and the village had their first heyday in the 12th and 13th centuries. The annual fairs in the French Champagne region, including in the towns of Troyes, Bar-sur-Aube, Lagny, and Provins, attracted many Italian merchants from Lombardy.
The shortest route was over the Simplon Pass. From the 14th century, however, the importance of these markets declined. The economic centre shifted to the Hanseatic cities, Lyon and Flanders.
The Great St Bernard then becomes the most important pass. The St Gotthard, Lukmanier, Splügen, and Septimer passes also became increasingly important, especially after the Confederation and its cantons (Eidgenossenschaft) conquered Italian territories in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.
The Stockalperturm
Kaspar von Stockalper ( le roi du Simplon, der Fugger der Alpen) initiated a new trading (and political) empire in the seventeenth century with a trade monopoly between Geneva and Milan.
He uses the Simplon Pass as a transit route. He also initiates the first regular postal service across the Simplon Pass. The Stockalper tower in Gondo is a reminder. In the following century, north-south trade again shifted mainly to other passes.
Napoleon decided in 1800 to build a new road over the Simplon to transport cannons and his army to Lombardy (owned by Austro-Habsburg) after the conquest of the Confederation in 1798 and the establishment of the Helvetic Republic (1798-1803).
This road was completed in 1805 and was an engineering feat. Napoleon also perfected the postal service over the Simplon Pass. The post office in Simplon village, built by Napoleon, was built in this period. The ‘Alten Kaserne’ museum in the Gondoschlucht gorge recounts this history.
After the fall of Napoleon, the Simplon Pass and the village became tourist attractions. The beautiful nature, mountain scenery, proximity to glaciers and the Grand Tour of poets, writers, scientists and (English) aristocrats and their travel reports made the village and the pass increasingly famous. Diligences drove to and from the two hospices on the Simplon pass.
Stockalper Hospiz, Simplon Pass.
At the end of the road over the Simplon and Gondo canyons, a gold rush arose in the village of Gondo around 1870, as it was then in the (wild) west of America. Kaspar of Stockalper had initiated the first gold mine (the Stockalpermine) two centuries earlier.
After 1870, international companies with headquarter in Paris were established. The first telegraph connection in Switzerland reported messages to the management in Paris. This gold hype did not last long, but the gold mines are still accessible today (guided tours).
Today, Gondo is the end of Canton Valais and Switzerland and the start of hiking routes in the Gondo Gorge, the Via Stockalper (from Gondo to Brig) and Domodossola in Italy.
The Simplon Tunnel construction and opening 1906. Collection Ecomuseum Simplon
Simplon-Dorf successfully withstood the construction of the Gotthard railway tunnel (1882) and the Simplon tunnel (1906). The pass was not important for goods and passenger traffic any more. Still, the modernisation of the road, the Post auto from 1919 onwards, the Swiss road network, the recognition of the Stockalperweg as a road of national historical importance, nature, the Ecomuseum Simplon and several tourist opportunities offer the village opportunities.
Source and further information: Brig Simplon Tourismus – Gemeinde Simplon Dorf (gemeinde-simplon.ch)
