The ancient road that led from the floor of the Ossola Valley to the Binn Valley through the Bocchetta d’Arbola or Albrunpass (2409 m a.s.l.) and then to Switzerland is particularly important for the history of transits through the Alps.

Arbola is the lowest and easiest pass in the Lepontine Alps, second only to the Simplon in the Ossola mountains. While the Boccareccio Pass, Cornera Pass, and Rossa Pass are made difficult by imposing rock ridges that make access difficult for people and impossible for pack animals, the paved mule track of Arbola allowed the transit of long lines of pack animals loaded with goods. A long caravan route across the Lepontine Alps, not far from the Gotthard, from which rivers flow in the direction of the four winds, has always been a fundamental orographic junction in the Alpine road network: Arbola leads to the Binntal, Gries leads to the Hasli and then to Oberland and San Giacomo Pass (the “Mountain of Valdolgia”) leads to Airolo and Ticino.

The “Antigorio road” toward Baceno, Devero, and Arbola (the “lower pass” to distinguish it from the upper or “glacier pass” of the Gries) was for many centuries the main commercial road between Valais and Lombardy. So much so that even ancient maps define Arbola as a “pass towards Lombardy” (Pass gegen Lombardy, Sebastian Munster, 1550) or “pass towards Milan” (Pass auf Mailand, Gabriel Walser, 1768). In the Middle Ages, when people began to cross the high Alpine passes to exchange goods and ideas, the stops at Baceno and Ernen became increasingly important. Historians consider the villages at the foot of the Baceno, Binn, and Ernen Passes as “pass settlements” where the trading activity was combined with the herding one. Until the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, when the Gondo gorge on the Simplon was equipped with wooden footbridges anchored to the rock with chains, the Arbola Pass was the “gateway to Lombardy”.

Wheat and wine, silks and spices from the Orient reached the north; salt, cheese, and livestock came down from the south. A dynasty of merchants grew up in Baceno and Croveo and traveled through Alpine Europe, also smuggling salt from the mines of Hall, near Salzburg, bringing it to the market of Ernen via the “transversal route” of the San Giacomo, Scatta Minoia, and Bocchetta d’Arbola Passes. They developed a network of transalpine relationships with the Swiss cantons of Uri and Unterwalden. They crossed the high passes and owned meadows and pastures to feed the herds bought in Switzerland and sold on the Lombardy markets and cellars where to store wine and cheese. The itinerary of the ancient Via dell’Arbola – Via Albrun is one of the Cultural Routes of Regional Interest in Switzerland.

Info and stops: https://www.piemonteoutdoor.it/it/attivita/escursionismo/dellarbola-albrun