ST. BERNARD PASSES, two passes across the main chain of the Alps, both traversed by motor roads. The Great St. Bernard (8,111 ft.) leads (53 m.) from Martigny (anc. Octo durus) in the Rhone valley (Switzerland) to Aosta (anc. Augusta Praetoria) in Italy. It was known in Roman times. The hospice on the pass was founded (or perhaps refounded) by St. Bernard of Menthon (d. about 1081), and since the 12th or early 13th century has been in charge of a community of Austin canons, the mother-house being at Martigny. In former days the servants of the canons, and the famous dogs, saved many lives, especially of Italian workmen. In May i800 Napoleon led his army over the pass, which was then traversed by a bridle road only. The Little St. Bernard (7,179 ft.) also was known in Roman times, and the hospice refounded by St. Bernard of Menthon, though it is now in charge of the military and religious order of SS. Maurice and Lazarus. The pass leads (39 m.) from Bourg St. Maurice in the Isere valley (Savoie) to Aosta, but is much less frequented by travellers than its neighbour opposite.
There is no certain mention of the road over the pass of the Great St. Bernard (Alpis Poenina, Poeninus Mons) before 57 B.C. when Julius Caesar sent Servius Galba over it. Even in Strabo's time it was impassable for wheeled traffic; we find that Augusta Praetoria originally had but two gates, one opening towards the Little St. Bernard (Alpis Graia), the other towards Eporedia (Ivrea), but none towards the Alpis Poenina. The military arrangement of the German provinces rendered the con struction of the road necessary, and it is mentioned as existing in A.D. 69. Remains of it cut in the rock, some 121 ft. in width, still exist near the lake at the top of the pass. On the plain at the
top of the pass is the temple of Jupiter Poeninus (Penninus), remains of which were excavated in 189o-1893, though objects connected with it had long ago been found. The oldest of the votive-tablets which can be dated belongs to the time of Tiberius, and the temple may be attributed to the beginning of the empire; objects, however, of the first Iron age (4th or 5th century B.c.) were also found and many Gaulish coins. Other buildings, prob ably belonging to the post station at the top of the pass, were also discovered. Many of the objects found then and in previous years, including many votive-tablets, are in the museum at the hospice of the Great St. Bernard.
The Little St. Bernard was known to the Romans as Alpis Graia. It derived its name from the legend that Hercules, re turning from Spain with the oxen of Geryon, crossed the Alps by this route, though the legend rather suits the route through the Maritime Alps. According to some modern scholars, Hannibal passed this way over the Alps (see HANNIBAL, and Partsch in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyklopiidie 1604). In any case it was the principal pass over the Alps into Gallia Comata until the pass of the Alpis Cottia (Mont Genevre) was opened by Cn. Pompeius in 75 B.C., and became the principal route, though the road was only completed under Augustus by Cottius in 3 B.C. Various re mains of the road are visible, and those of a building (possibly a temple of Jupiter) have ben found on the summit of the pass. See Notizie degli scavi (1883), 7 (1894), 46; and C. Promis, Antichita di Aosta (Turin, 1862), xis sqq.