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Napoleon’s Crossing over the Great St. Bernard Pass
Napoleon’s crossing over the
Great St. Bernard Pass with his army of 60.000 men,
in prohibitive climatic conditions, must have given
rise to great amazement and admiration among the
inhabitants of the villages in the valley and
certainly left its mark on local tradition.
In fact, the typical carnival costumes of the Great
St. Bernard recall the uniforms of the Napoleonic
soldiers. To re-evoke Napoleon’s crossing of the
Pass and consider the event from the point of view
of the inhabitants of the Great St. Bernard valley,
we propose a selection of texts written by regional
authors which will enable you to understand the
importance of this historical event and its impact
on the lives and culture of the local population.
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“…On the 19th of May, 1800, at
midnight, Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the
French Republic, left the town of Martigny to ascend
the valley of Entremont, in the direction of the
Great St. Bernard Pass. He was accompanied by his
guards, his secretary, and two canons of the Mont
Jovis Hospice (who were also responsible for the
hospice in Martigny): the prior, Abbot Murrit, and
the Priory procurator, Abbot Terrettaz. Along the
way, he stopped for a few minutes to see the parish
priest in Liddes, Abbot Rausis.
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In the village of
Bourg-Saint-Pierre, he contacted the mountain guide,
Pierre Nicolas Dorsaz, to engage him for the journey
up to the Pass.
The sources of relative
historical information are mainly three: direct
contemporary evidence, including: Napoleon’s letters
and the letters of his generals; military reports;
the diaries of Pantaleone Bich and of the archpriest
of Saint-Vincent, Abbot Jean- Baptiste Freppaz; the
chronicles written by the characters involved, after
the event had taken place, for instance: the report
written by the archpriest of Gignod, François-Joseph
Frutaz; Napoleon’s own Memoirs and those of his
generals,
The Life of Henry Brulard, written by
Stendhal, etc., - and, lastly, the anecdotes related
by the witnesses of this event, selected, some
decades later, by famous historians such as Jean-Baptiste
Gal and the canons, Louis Vescoz and
François-Gabriel Frutaz.
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Some passages seem to be drawn
from hagiography (it is often so when famous
personages are involved): mentioned are the places
Napoleon passed through, the houses he stayed in,
the rocks he leaned on, the fountains he stopped to
drink at…
Glasses that he drank from were kept as
relics, and even the name Bonaparte was added to
first names, as if it were one of a patron Saint.
It
is significant to note that the name Napoleon is a
common name in the Aosta Valley, above all in the
Great St. Bernard and Valpelline valleys.”
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“Napoleon Bonaparte conceived the
daring plan to enter Italian territory rapidly by
crossing over the Great St. Bernard Pass, despite
the innumerable difficulties that made such a heroic
exploit seem nigh on impossible. Preceded by skilful
engineers, accompanied by his entire General Staff
and his personal Guard, and followed by the best
army that France had ever had, Napoleon reached
Lausanne on the 12th August, 1800. When – during his
stay in Lausanne – his generals pointed out the
impossibility of crossing the Pass with the
artillery, the ambitious general, Hannibal and
Caesar’s rival, replied: “What is possible is within
everyone’s range, I want to attempt the impossible”.
The crossing of the Pass was undertaken and the
difficulties overcome: from the 15th to the 20th of
May , infantry, cavalry, kits and cannons crossed
the Great St. Bernard Pass.
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In Bourg Saint Pierre, a group of workmen
dismantled the war chariots and the gun carriages, numbering each piece.
Another group, stationed in Saint-Rhémy, after the passage of the first
division, reassembled the chariots and gun carriages in order to put them on
the road again.
Napoleon, who had left from Paris on the
6th of May, and then moved from Lausanne to Martigny, staying at the
Hospice of the Canons of the Great St. Bernard, had supervised the
operations for the transport of the equipment across the Pass. On
the 20th of May, Bonaparte, having spent the night in Bourg St.
Pierre, left before dawn to make his way up to the Pass; when he
reached the Hospice, he slept for three hours, had supper and then
left to continue his journey towards Etroubles, where he spent the
following night.
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The abbot, Veysendaz, related “In 15 days, about
3.000 men passed through the village of Etroubles.” and again “after eight
days, during which there was a constant passage of troops, Napoleon
descended from the Great St. Bernard Pass”. Over a period of about three
weeks, a constant flux of French troops crossed the mountain.”
Courtesy of the
AIAT Gran San Bernardo
(c) 1997-2008 E. Massetti
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