The Col du Mont-Cenis: a strategic point of passage.

“The Mont Cenis road is worthy of the Romans, or, better still, worthy of Napoleon. It is a masterpiece that honours his reign”. J. Delisle, Journal de Voyage, 1807.

The 2084-m high Col du Mont-Cenis towers above the Maurienne and Susa Valleys, at the heart of the Mont-Cenis Range.
This prestigious pass marked the border between France and Italy until 1947. The very narrow road that existed under the First Empire (wagons had to be disassembled and carried on mules) was widened by Napoleon Bonaparte, with construction taking ten years, from 1803 to 1813, and involving the toil of 3000 labourers. During the work, the 9^th-century hospice was extended so it could provide shelter for poor travellers, not for travellers “who thanks to their fortune can enjoy the hospitality of the inns set up along the road”, to quote the rules introduced by the Bishop of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne.
Pope Pious VII stayed at the hospice in 1812. He was in such poor health he was given the last rights but, against all expectations, he recovered and was able to get back to France.
At this time, the pass was kept open throughout the winter, although 75 “roadmen” were needed to clear the road of snow. Walking up to the 2000-m pass, below the Fort de la Turra from Lanslebourg took almost four hours but getting back down was much faster thanks to some clever guides who invented a lightweight sled called a “ramasse”, made from green alder shoots, brooms and hide. On a ramasse, the workers could slide straight down the 600-m of hillside, cutting across the numerous switchbacks on the path. However, it wasn’t unusual for the sledges to eject of all their occupants into the snow!

The Mont-Cenis Railway: an extraordinary adventure

The Paris-Lyon-Marseille railway reached Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne in 1862 but the only way to continue to Susa was by coach, mule, sled or foot. Even though a system had been set up to assist travellers, the journey was long and arduous. So, when an English engineer, John Fell, presented Napoleon III with a project to reduce the journey time to Susa to six hours, his plans were greeted with great enthusiasm. Fell’s idea was to build a railway over the 2084-m high Mont Cenis pass, which would make it the highest railway in Europe. Built between the winter of 1866 and June 1869, the new line was a masterpiece of civil engineering; however, its cost was astronomical due to the need to construct several avalanche tunnels. The 15-tonne steam locomotives had a central wheel to increase friction, both going up and coming down. Two trains a day in each direction carried goods and passengers over the pass, reaching a top speed of 24 km/hr. on the ascent and 17 km/hr. on the descent. In three and a half years, 100,000 people had the good fortune to experience this extraordinary railway adventure. The opening of the Frejus Tunnel in 1871 was the death knell for the Mont Cenis railway, and coaches and carriages, or sledges in winter, once again took over the route between Modane and Lanslebourg. In 1909, a trolley-bus (electric bus) was put into service.