Gran Sasso d'Italia

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The three peaks of Corno Grande

The Gran Sasso d' Italia (short Gran Sasso, German about "big rock in Italy" ) is a mountain range in the province of Teramo ( Abruzzo ) in Italy.

Geography

This highest mountain on the Apennine Peninsula, located approximately in the center thereof, and also forms the westernmost highest part of Abruzzo. Highest peaks of the Gran Sasso is the Corno Grande with 2,912 m. The southernmost glacier in Europe, the Ghiacciaio del Calderone is ( Calderone Glacier ) On its north side. To the southeast the mountains formed during the Ice Age, distinctively shaped merges into the 1600-2200 m high karst plateaus of Campo Imperatore.

The fallout from this field of high levels dine after about a month and more than 1,600 meters above sea level about 30 km as the crow flies past three source areas of the city Popoli. Two of the areas are used for drinking water Popolis or the cities of Pescara and Chieti, the former flows of these sources no longer exist. So the Pescara River receives only the water of a source area, which today is a nature reserve and is one of the largest bird sanctuary of Abruzzo. Due to an accident in the tunnel bore at the Gran Sasso one of the underground lakes was drilled. The deep-water layered over 20 years in various lakes, until it comes out of the rock with more than 7000 liters per second.

The mountain massif seems straight from the east extremely impressive, as the coast of the Adriatic Sea is only about 30 km away. From Pescara, about 50 km away from the Gran Sasso looks like a sleeping woman and is called " la bella Addormentata " - the sleeping beauty - known and immortalized on postcards.

Tourism

The Gran Sasso is heavily developed, and especially for mountaineering, but also for winter sports is a popular tourist destination. The majority of the mountain is part of the Gran Sasso National Park.

History

The first recorded ascent of the highest point of the Gran Sasso, the Corno Grande, was made in 1573 by the Bolognese Francesco De Marchi.

1943 on the Campo Imperatore, held captive in today's Hotel Campo Imperatore, the deposed fascist dictator Benito Mussolini until he in an adventurous action by German paratroopers (companies oak) under the command of Major Harald Mors, and the involvement of a small SS commandos was freed led by Otto Skorzeny and flown in a small aircraft of the type " Fieseler Storch" in order to control the puppet state of the Italian Social Republic in Salò in northern Italy until April 1945.

Gran Sasso today

Today, under the Gran Sasso results in the Gran Sasso tunnel through it, which also houses the entrance to the underground laboratory Laboratori nazionali del Gran Sasso ( LNGS ) is for elementary particle physics. The experiments conducted therein are dependent on a shield from cosmic radiation.