Little Saint Bernard Pass

Little Saint Bernard Pass

Little Saint Bernard Pass, French Col du Petit-Saint-Bernard, Italian Colle del Piccolo San Bernardo, pass (7,178 ft [2,188 m]) situated just southwest of the Italian border in Savoie département of southeastern France; it lies between the Mont Blanc Massif (north) and the Graian Alps (south-southeast). The road across the pass connects Bourg-Saint-Maurice (7 mi [11 km] southwest) in the Isère River Valley, France, with Morgex (10 mi northeast) in the Valle d’Aosta, Italy. Until the Treaty of Paris in 1947 the pass lay on the French–Italian border. Just southwest of the pass is a hospice that was founded in the 11th century by St. Bernard of Aosta (Italy).

According to some scholars, Hannibal led the Carthaginian Army over the Little St. Bernard Pass on his way toward Rome in 218 bc. The pass was the principal route over the Alps into Gallia Comata, a province of Gaul, until Montgenèvre Pass was opened in 77 bc. The ancient name, Alpis Graia, interpreted to mean “Greek pass,” was associated with the legend that the Greek hero Hercules, returning from Spain with the oxen of the three-bodied giant Geryon, crossed the Alps by this route, though the legend better suits a route through the Maritime Alps.