Via Claudia Augusta

The Via Claudia Augusta is an ancient Roman road, which linked the valley of the Po River with Rhaetia (modern Southern Germany) across the Alps.

The route still exists, and since the 1990s increased interest in long-distance hiking and cycling have made the German and Austrian stretches of the Via Claudia Augusta popular among tourists, with the result that modern signage (illustration) identifies the revitalised track. Since 2007, the Giontech Archeological Site, in Mezzocorona/Kronmetz (Italy) serves as the Via Claudia Augusta International Research Center with the support of the Foundation Piana Rotaliana and the Government of the City of Mezzocorona/Kronmetz.

In 15 BC, the Roman general Nero Claudius Drusus, the stepson of Augustus, got orders from his stepfather to improve the passage through the Alps for military purposes and to increase Roman control over Rhaetia and Noricum. The project of converting a pack-animal trail to serve wheeled vehicles was completed sixty years later in 46-47 AD by the son of Drusus, the Emperor Claudius. People and goods could pass between the Adriatic and the broad valley of the Po to Tridentum (modern Trento), then northward following the Adige River up to Pons Drusi, the "bridge of Drusus" which developed into Bolzano. Thence it continued towards Maia (near Merano), and over the Reschen Pass. From the pass it descended through the valleys of the Inn River and the Lech, just beyond Augusta Vindelicorum (Augsburg), with an extension to Burghoefe ( Sumuntorium ), now Mertingen near the Danube river and not far from the present-day town of Donauwörth; here the Via Claudia Augusta branched into the then important Roman military road running from West to East on the south side of the Danube river (via militaris iuxta riva danuvii or shorter via iuxta danuvii). This then important road is called by modern-day German historians Donausüdstrasse. It served to secure the Roman northern frontier, which was marked until the end of the first century by the Danube river.

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