Mendelpass
The Mendel seen with the pass village of north-west
The Mendel Pass ( Italian Passo della Mendola ), also called simply the Mendel, is a mountain pass southwest of Bolzano between South Tyrol and Trentino in Italy. It is the deepest incision of the Adige valley parallel Mendel ridge between the 1737 m high Penegal the north and the Roen with 2116 m slm in the south. The pass connects s.l.m. 1,363 m Oltradige in Appiano with the Val di Non in Fondo.
The Mendola and has long been the language border between the German and the Italian-speaking Tyrol. Today here are contiguous autonomous provinces of Trentino and South Tyrol. The pass road, Strada Statale 42 (SS 42), all year round. There is a ban on travel trailers.
Description
In the West, the leading on the Mendel Pass SS 42 is not the character of a mountain pass, because it leads without sweeping Fondo with an average of 4.5 % (maximum 12%) slope over Ronzone and Ruffrè over to the pass. In this case, a distance of 11 km, is overcome. Below the summit branches off a side road to 1737 m slm high from Penegal, which is very popular with motorcyclists. The road winds through 3.9 miles more 358 m height difference.
On the east side leads the pass road from the SP 14, the Wine Road in Appiano, with an average gradient of 5.7 % (maximum 12%) for a distance of 15 km to the pass. From above Caldaro ( Kalterer height ) 15 numbered bends have to drive through. The pass road leads over long distances on steep Mendelkamm below the Penegal along. At some vantage points one has a good view over the Überetsch to the valley of the Adige. Because of the steepness of the eastern slope are to cover about 26 km of road for 9.5 km in a straight line between Appiano and Fondo.
The construction of the pass road lasted from 1880 to 1885 and made their upper area a popular holiday destination for the " upper ten thousand ". This was reinforced by the construction of the Mendola funicular in 1900, up from a Kaltern leading funicular.
Rehabilitation and geologic instability
For several years running elaborate works for the widening of the narrow pass road and hairpin bends to be used ( mainly tourists ) so the higher volume of traffic. In March 2005, the slopes of the top switchbacks were secured with rockfall nets.
So attractive is the landscape, the geological situation requires full attention of professionals. The unsymmetrical extremely steep in the west flank of the mountain chain Mendel goes to the formation of the Alps and the proximity to Periadriatic seam, a striking geological fault line in the north, back. The slopes along the mountain roads are monitored by the State Agency for Geology and construction materials testing, especially in the spring when the temperature fluctuations can cause severe frost and Tauphänomene.
History
The Mendel Pass is one of the since time immemorial committed passports. On the west ramp, about 14 km from Bolzano, A small road from a stone avalanche landscape that Tuflislammer or Attila's grave is called. Excavations in this ruinous landscape occupied settlement from the Stone Age right up to the late Iron Age. Often far away from each other lying, you found stone-age axes as well as Iron Age Axes. Everywhere you met foundations of houses whose floors were paved. Numerous melting and slag residues lead to the conclusion that the place was an early metallurgy center.
Even in Roman times, led a mule track over the Mendel Pass, this served alongside local interests, especially the military. Since that time, the Mendel Pass retained its strategic importance until into the 20th century. From the early Middle Ages is known that Frankish hordes penetrated from the Nonsberg to Appiano, while they took very likely the old road over the Passo Mendola.
After 1856 the Tonale road had been completed for the military, the military also wanted a road across the Mendel Pass, as without it the Tonale road barely had a value. But it would take more than two decades, was started up in 1879 with the construction of a modern road Sigmundskron Mendel Fondo. By 1887, a continuous, well 98 km long piece Reichsstrasse Bolzano -Gries -Mendel- Tonale was completed. The Reichsstrasse had barely a decade after its completion, will be in 1900, expanded. The winter tourism had increased so much that the only ten -year-old Mendel Straße was the no longer cope. Only now had the road to a standard which also allowed driving on a bus. So, after the May 8, 1901 succeeded a test drive between Saint Michael and Mendel, a bus set firmly.