VALTELLINA (Ger. Veltlin; the name comes from the former capital, Teglio), properly the name of the upper valley of Adda, in north Italy. Historically, it also comprises the Italian Liro or San Giacomo valley, now the province of Sondrio.
Pop. (1931) 133,758. Today the whole valley belongs to the kingdom of Italy, except the side valley of Poschiavo (Puschlav), which belongs to the Swiss canton of the Grisons (Graubunden).
The chief town is Sondrio other important places being Tirano (3,611), Chiavenna (3,713) and Morbegno (4,661). Near Bormio there are some frequented mineral springs (sulphur and lime), known in Pliny's time, and efficacious in diseases of the skin. There are several other baths in the side valleys, such as Santa Caterina (chalybeate), Masino and Le Prese (sulphur).
The highest points in the ranges enclosing the valley are the Piz Zupo (13,131 ft.) in the Bernina group and the Grau Zebru (Konigsspitze) (12,655 ft.) in the Ortler district; the Monte della Disgrazia (12,067 ft.) is the highest peak comprised entirely within the water-basin of the valley. Four well-marked Alpine passes are traversed by good roads—the Stelvio pass (9,055 ft., the highest carriage-road in Europe) from Bormio to Spondigna in the Adige valley; the Bernina pass (7,645 ft.) from Tirano to Samaden in the Upper Engadine; and the Aprica pass (3,875 ft.) from Tirano to the Val Camonica and the Lake of Iseo ; while from near the top of the Stelvio a fourth road leads over the Umbrail pass (8,242 ft., the highest in Switzerland) to the Swiss valley of Munster, which is reached at the village of Santa Maria. The main valley is traversed from end to end by a magnificent carriage-road constructed by the Austrian Government in 1820-25. A railway runs from Colico, on the Lake of Como, past Sondrio to Tirano, a distance of 42 m., while there is another from Colico to Chiavenna ( I m.).
The population is wholly Italian-speaking and Roman Catholic, the valley being in the diocese of Como. The shrine of the Ma donna of Tirano (founded 1520) attracts large numbers of pil grims. The valley, particularly in its lower portion, is extremely fertile: and of late years vigorous measures have been taken to prevent the damage caused by the frequent inundations of the Adda. Chestnuts, vines, mulberry trees and fig trees abound; and there are many picturesquely situated churches, castles and villages. The chief articles exported are wine and honey. Large quantities of honey are annually sent abroad. The Valtellina has now become important for its hydroelectric plants.
History.—Af ter the defeat of the Lombards (774) the Val tellina was given (775) by Charlemagne to the abbey of St. Denis near Paris, which never seems to have exercised its rights. In Lothair I., confirming an earlier donation (803) made by Char lemagne, gave the churches of Poschiavo and Bormio to the bishop of Como. Bormio was in 1205 won by the men of Como, who in ioo6 had received one-half of Valtellina from the emperor, and by 1214 they were masters of the entire valley. They retained
Bormio till 1300, when it freed itself ; but in 1336 it belonged to the bishop of Chur. In 1335 the Visconti of Milan became lords of Como, and theref3re of Valtellina. As early as 1360 the men of Rhaetia made incursions into Valtellina on the pretext that it had formed part of ancient Rhaetia. This idea was confirmed in 1404, when, in return for kind treatment received during his exile, Mastino Visconti (son of Barnabb) gave to the bishop of Chur his share of the Milanese, including Poschiavo, Bormio and Valtellina. Relying on this donation, the men of the Three Leagues of Rhaetia (best known by the name of Graubunden) invaded the valley in 1486-87, Poschiavo becoming in 1486 per manently a member (not a subject land) of the Gottes/iausbund. In 1512 Chiavenna, Bormio and Valtellina were also seized and harshly ruled. Mastino Visconti's donation was solemnly con firmed in 1516 by the emperor Maximilian I. In 1530 the bishop of Chur was forced to sell to the Three Leagues his title to these two districts. At the time of the Reformation Poschiavo became Protestant. The other two districts clung to the old faith and came under the influence of Carlo Borromeo. Valtellina was ex tremely important to the Habsburgs as affording the direct route between their possessions of the Milanese and Tirol. Hence a great struggle took place between Austria and Spain on one side and France and Venice on the other. The religious conflicts in Graubunden led to reprisals in the "subject land" of Valtellina. In 1620 (July 19–Aug. 4) the Spanish and Catholic faction (headed by the Planta family) massacred from 35o to 600 Protestants in the valley, according to different accounts (Veltliner Mord or Sacro Macello). For the next 20 years the valley was the scene of great strife, being held by the Spaniards (1621-23, 1629-31, by the French (1624-27, and by the pope (1623, 1627). - At length George Jenatsch, a former pastor, who had been the active and unscrupulous leader of the Protestant party, became a Catholic (1635) in order to free the land from the French by aid of the Spaniards (1637), who finally (1639) gave it back to its old masters on condition that the Protestants were excluded from the valley. In this way the local struggles of Valtellina came to be mixed up with the Thirty Years' War.
In 1797 Bormio and Valtellina were annexed to the Cisalpine republic, in 1805 to the Napoleonic kingdom of Italy and in 1815 (despite the remonstrances of the Rhetian leagues) to the king dom of Lombardo-Venetia, held by the emperor of Austria. In 1859 they became, like the rest of Lombardy, part of the kingdom of united Italy. Poschiavo followed the fortunes of the "Gottes hausbund." It became (after 1798) part of the canton Rhetia of the Helvetic republic, and in 1803 of the canton of the Grau bunden or Grisons, which was then first received a full member of the Swiss Confederation. (See SWITZERLAND.)