The Maria Theresa road, a merchants' route in the Mesolcina

An old mule track is passable again after around three years of restoration work. The route starts at Roveredo, crosses the Val Albionasca and reaches the San Jorio pass, in the direction of the upper Lake Como area and the Valchiavenna.

Speaking of a single road is nonetheless imprecise. The route was in fact a network of parallel paths, adapted each time to the conditions of the terrain.

Documentary sources trace its history from the late Middle Ages onwards. In the mid-sixteenth century the route was reopened to encourage trade and took the name Strada Mercanti dell'Albionasca. It was one of the region's three major transverse connections and combined overland routes with navigation on the lake.

Goods, smuggling and a misleading name

The road connected the Mesolcina and the Sopraceneri with the Valchiavenna and the upper Lake Como area. What passed along the paths was mainly Lombard grain and alpine livestock.

The same routes also served smuggling, which used the less closely watched variants of the network.

On the name, the historian Gionata Pieracci corrects a widespread belief. Maria Theresa of Austria never travelled this road. In the eighteenth century she acted as a mediator in trade negotiations between Dongo and the Three Leagues over the grain trade, but the Austrian court made no direct intervention on the route itself.

The corridor continued to be used in the twentieth century as well. Between the two world wars military defensive works were built following the same historic passages.

Pieracci comes from Roveredo and took a degree in history at the State University of Milan. His work accompanies the physical restoration of the path with a reconstruction of its economic functions.