Die Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse
These days, we travel in such convenient comfort by road, rail or air that we tend to overlook the difficulties our ancestors experienced when they contemplated a journey of perhaps ten miles across open country to the next village. A major river or chain of mountains was a natural boundary that prevented travel for the majority of the populace but even these barriers were crossed by the pilgrims, traders and invading armies.
The Alps are one of these natural mountain barriers and the particular north-south route over the Hochtor that is the subject of this note, was in use almost two-thousand years BC. Archaeological finds such as pre-Celtic bronze knives, Celtic gold jewellery, a Roman statue, medieval pack-animal bridles and the chains from galley slaves dating from the 17th century are indicators of the enduring value of this mountain pass in more recent history.
The importance of this route as a tourist attraction was recognised in 1924 when it was decided to build a road that would technically surpass all other alpine roads built up to that time. Consequently, an Austrian engineer Dipl. Ing. Franz Wallack, was commissioned to undertake the construction of a three-metre-wide gravel surfaced road that would have passing points within sight of each other, and a maximum gradient of 12 per cent. Due to lack of funding the project didn’t proceed beyond the draft stage until the Austrian Government resurrected the scheme as a means of employing some of the half million people who had become unemployed due to the world recession following the Wall Street crash.
In 1931 the Grossglockner High Alpine Road company was founded and construction proceeded rapidly thereafter. The road which was officially opened on 3 August 1935 as a toll road, is only 47.8 kilometres long and climbs from the cornfields at Fusch (805 metres above sea level) at the northern end, up to the ice fields at Hochtor (2504 metres) before descending southwards to Heiligenblut (1301 metres). Just to the west of the road at it’s highest point is the Grossglockner, the highest mountain in Austria at 3797 metres and the adjacent Franz Joseph glacier.
During the 26 months of construction 870,000 cubic metres of earth and rock were moved, 15,750 cubic metres of retaining wall created and 67 bridges constructed. 3,200 men were employed on the works and the total number of shifts worked was 1.8 million. The final cost of the road at today’s prices was 56.8 million Euro including the improvement of the approach roads in the Möll and Fusch valleys and other minor works.
These statistics give only a part of the picture. The work was carried out almost entirely by manual labour and construction ceased with the onset of winter. Even today the road is closed to traffic between October and May as it is uneconomic to keep it clear of snow all through the year even with the most modern equipment. It has been recorded that 600,000 to 800,000 cubic metres of snow, between snow walls up to 21 metres high have to be removed from the road in April before it can be opened to traffic in May. When it was originally conceived it was expected that the road would attract about 40,000 visitors a year. The much modernised highway now carries in excess of a million visitors a year.
I cannot imagine that there are many places in Austria that do not have a legend associated with its history and Heiligenblut (or Holy Blood as it is known in English) at the southern end of the Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse, is one of those that has. There are many versions of the legend of course, but an abbreviated version of one of them is as follows.
A picture depicting Jesus Christ miraculously started to bleed after it had been stabbed by a non believer. Some of the blood was collected in a small glass bottle and this had come into the possession of the Emperor of Constantinople. One of the Emperor’s generals was a very successful Danish soldier called Briccius and after many years of faithful service he became homesick and was released from the Emperor’s service. He was allowed to take the glass bottle of Christ’s blood with him as a reward, but as it was such an important religious relic the Emperor ambushed Briccius and his brothers just outside the city walls.
The ambush failed, but for safety Briccius decided to hide the bottle in a gash he made in his calf. Then, with the wound covered in dirt and blood and dressed as pilgrims, he and his brothers managed to reach Carinthia safely but they separated somewhere near Sachensburg. Briccius headed on into the Alps but was caught in an avalanche one stormy night and died.
When the mountain farmers climbed up to collect their hay on sledges before Christmas, as was the custom in this region of Austria, they found three beautiful green strands of grass sprouting out of the snow. Astounded by this incomprehensible vision they dug down through the snow and soon uncovered the body of Briccius, whom they immediately assumed was a holy man as the grass was growing from his heart.
They knew they had to bury him but didn’t know where, so they loaded the corpse onto a wagon pulled by two unbroken oxen and decided to build a church and bury the corpse where ever the oxen stopped. The church at Heiligenblut was constructed where the oxen stopped. A few days after the interment the villagers noticed that one of the corpse’s feet had emerged from the grave and after close inspection they found the little bottle containing dark fluid hidden in the flesh.
If you visit the church in Heiligenblut you will find the little glass bottle displayed on top of a high pillar and in the centre of the church a set of stairs that lead down to the burial vault where St. Briccius lies in his tomb.
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John Langdon
Klagenfurt
December 2006