The Little St Bernard Pass (French: ''Col du Petit Saint-Bernard'', Italian: ''Colle del Piccolo San Bernardo'') is a

mountain pass A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since many of the world's mountain ranges have presented formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both Human migration, human a ...

in the

Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Sw ...

on the France–Italy border. Its saddle is at 2188 metres above sea level. It is located between

Savoie Savoie (; Arpitan: ''Savouè'' or ''Savouè-d'Avâl''; English: ''Savoy'' ) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, Southeastern France. Located in the French Alps, its prefecture is Chambéry. In 2019, Savoie had a population of ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, and Aosta Valley,

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, to the south of the

Mont Blanc Massif The Mont Blanc massif (french: Massif du Mont-Blanc; it, Massiccio del Monte Bianco) is a mountain range in the Alps, located mostly in France and Italy, but also straddling Switzerland at its northeastern end. It contains eleven major indepen ...

, exactly on the main alpine watershed. There is also a

Great St. Bernard Pass it, Colle del Gran San Bernardogerman: Grosser Sankt Bernhard , photo = Great St Bernard Pass.jpg , photo_caption = View of the pass and hospice from Great St Bernard Lake with Mont Vélan in background , elevation_m = 2469 , elevation_ref = ...

, famous for giving the St Bernard breed its name, and a San Bernardino Pass. The road across this pass (D1090 from Bourg-Saint-Maurice via La Rosiere in France; SS26 from the Aosta Valley via

La Thuile LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * La (musical note), or A, the sixth note * "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figure ...

in Italy) is usually open from May to October. For current road status see ''Etat des principaux cols routiers francais''. At the summit, the road cuts through a

stone circle A stone circle is a ring of standing stones. Most are found in Northwestern Europe – especially in Britain, Ireland, and Brittany – and typically date from the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, with most being built from 3000 BC. The be ...

measuring 72 m (236 ft) in diameter. A

standing stone A menhir (from Brittonic languages: ''maen'' or ''men'', "stone" and ''hir'' or ''hîr'', "long"), standing stone, orthostat, or lith is a large human-made upright rock (geology), stone, typically dating from the European middle Bronze Age. T ...

once stood in the middle. From coin finds this is believed to date from the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

, possibly being a ceremonial site of the Tarentaisian culture (c. 725 BC–450 BC). The stone circle was partly restored in the 19th century. In the Roman era, a temple dedicated to

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but ...

was erected nearby along with a

mansio In the Roman Empire, a ''mansio'' (from the Latin word ''mansus,'' the perfect passive participle of ''manere'' "to remain" or "to stay") was an official stopping place on a Roman road, or ''via'', maintained by the central government for the use ...

serving travellers along the pass, and it is thought that Carthaginian general

Hannibal Hannibal (; xpu, 𐤇𐤍𐤁𐤏𐤋, ''Ḥannibaʿl''; 247 – between 183 and 181 BC) was a Carthaginian general and statesman who commanded the forces of Carthage in their battle against the Roman Republic during the Second Puni ...

used this route.

Tour de France

The Little St Bernard Pass was first crossed by the

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...

1949 Events January * January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2022. * January 2 – Luis ...

and has been featured three times since. In

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

, Montée d'Hauteville was climbed on stage 8 of the

. The pass was featured in the 2009 Tour de France Stage 16 on 21 July from Martigny (Switzerland) to Bourg-Saint-Maurice, 160 km, which also features the Great St Bernard Pass.

Route

From Bourg-Saint-Maurice to the south-west, the Col du Petit Saint-Bernard is 26.5 km long. Over this distance, the climb is 1,348 m (4,423 ft) (an average slope of 5.1%), with the steepest sections at 8.1% at the start of the climb. The first 15.5 km (9.6 mi) to La Rosière forms the

Montée d'Hauteville Montée d'Hauteville (1639 m.) is a mountain climb that was used in the 2007 Tour de France. The race caravan covered the first 15.3 km of the climb from Bourg-Saint-Maurice to the Little St Bernard Pass on the N. 90 border route to Courmay ...

climb. From

Pré-Saint-Didier Pré-Saint-Didier ( Valdôtain: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the Aosta Valley region of north-western Italy, at above sea level. Transportation The terminus of the regional railway is located there, although with no services since 2015. Before ...

(in the Aosta Valley region of north-western

), the pass is 23.5 km (14.6 mi) long. Over this distance the climb is 1,184 m (3,885 ft) (an average slope of 5%).

External links

Profile of Little St. Bernard Pass on climbbybike.com

*

Notes

{{Authority control Archaeological sites in France

Little Little is a synonym for small size and may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Little'' (album), 1990 debut album of Vic Chesnutt * ''Little'' (film), 2019 American comedy film *The Littles, a series of children's novels by American author John P ...

Landforms of Savoie

France–Italy border crossings Transport in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Roman waystations

Tour de France

Route

See also

External links

Notes