VIA CLAUDIA AUGUSTA SALESGUIDE

The Via Claudia auguSTa > european axiS of CulTure from adria To donau < ConneCTing people and CulTureS
The Via Claudia in South Tyrol
After the Roman conquest (1st Century BC), Augustus annexed
a part of Decima Regio (later Venetia et Histria). On the other
hand, Rhaetia began in Merano/Meran and Sabiona/Säben,
forming a province with Vindelicia (Augsburg). The Puster valley
was added to the province of Noricum.
The Via Claudia Augusta followed the course of the Etsch/Adige
river from the Salurner Klause/Chiusa di Salorno to Egna/Neumarkt
and the Mansio Endidae staging post (remains of a building
from the 1st century AD, recently uncovered and restored),
which was mentioned in the Itinerarium Antonini (3rd century
AD). A Roman brick marked with the auresis kiln stamp was
found in Castel Vetere/Castelfelder. In Bolzano/Bozen, which
in AD15 Drusus called Pons Drusi because of the important
bridge over the Isarco/Eisack, the Roman road turned towards
Val Venosta/Vintschgau, passing Maia (now Merano/Meran)
station and the nearby Algund/Lagundo, where the abutment
of a bridge from Roman times has been found. The milestone
exhibited in Rablà/Rabland – as does the milestone from Cesiomaggiore
– proves the existence of the Via Claudia Augusta.
The inscription states a Flumine Pado at flumen Danuvium.
The salt road, later connecting Salzburg with the Engadine
(a long alpine valley in southeast Switzerland), ran through
Glurns (Glorenza), which the Romans elevated to a town by
edict, while in Malles Venosta/Mals, before the Reschen Pass,
the fragment of a marble Statue of Venus was found. After the
collapse of the Roman Empire, Theoderich, King of the Ostrogoths,
sought to transform South Tyrol into an outpost to protect
his empire from enemy attacks, but after his death (526) the
Germanic Bavarii captured the territory. They were followed by
the Lombards, who created a duchy here. In the Middle Ages,
the region fell under the political and religious influence of the
prince bishops of Trento/Trient and Bressanone/Brixen and later
the counts of the Tyrol. Although the Brenner Pass is not as
high as the Reschen Pass, it was not used until later, because
the wild Isarco/Eisack gorge often had to be bypassed by
diverting from Sterzing to Merano/Meran via the Passo di Monte
Giovo/Jaufenpass.