ViaGottardo

The main route of the ViaGottardo followed the route from Basel over the Unteren Hauenstein and the Gotthardpass to Milan that was opened at the beginning of the 13th century. Its economic importance and ideological elevation as the lifeline of an independent Switzerland, make it an informative route on which to journey through the history and mythology of the country.

Along the way, a cross-section of Swiss settlements and cultural landscapes open out in such neatness that they could not be hiked in any other way. Since time immemorial, the Jura and Mitteland as transport-landscapes have stood in the shadow of those highly symbolic monuments of the Gotthard transit: the Teufelsbrücke (Devil's Bridge) embodies the momentous opening-up of Central Switzerland in the Middle Ages; the Tremolastrasse, the groundbreaking engineered road through the Alps; the Gotthard Railway, the triumph of industrialization; the motorway tunnel, symbol of mass motorization and sunny holiday dreams and the NEAT, a future-oriented transfer of transit traffic from road to rail.