Why did you need railway cars in the Alps if there is no railway (6 photos)

Perhaps the most unusual mountain hotel appeared in 1930 year in the Italian Alps. It was opened in railway cars, although there were no railways in this area and there are none. No matter how it sounds strange at first glance, but the appearance of the hotel is associated with demonstration of the military power of Italy.





Construction of the hotel Wagristoratore in the Alps

The fact is that Wagristoratore - this name was given to "railroad" hotel and the restaurant located in it - was built on Italian side of the San Giacomo Pass, next to the motorway Expensive.

It is important to understand two things - this is practically the border with Switzerland, and the height here is 2318 meters.

Moreover, this area seems to be driven into a wedge between two Swiss cantons - Ticino and Valais. The latter is considered part so-called German Switzerland, and Ticino - originally Italian (even now it is the only Swiss canton where Italian is considered the official language.



Construction of Wagristoratore, photo from 1930 - note the number of cars nearby

In general, if you do not delve into history, then Italy, headed by Benito Mussolini, there was a fix idea - to move the border and take the canton of Ticino. Therefore, it is believed that the Italians in this way demonstrated their ability to "lift weights".

Simply put, if they already managed to drag railroad cars, then with artillery and other military technology won't be a problem.

And the place in this regard is trump - within reach would be not just Swiss territory, but also a railway tunnel, etc. In addition, by this time, Italy had widened the road leading to the pass (formally - to improve tourism conditions) - thus Wagristoratore became "the cherry on cake".





Wagristoratore - a hotel in the Alps made from railway cars

But back to the hotel itself. Wagristoratore was assembled from two cars - a sleeping car and a dining car. Removed the wheels and put on concrete supports, six pieces for each car.

The cars performed their original functions - then to eat in one it was possible to dine, and in the other one to spend the night. And that's it this, we note, with beautiful views from the windows.

Both cars were connected by a specially built a three-story building, a kind of alpine chalet. Both the wagons themselves and the building were equipped according to the highest class, that is, it all drew on quite a decent and even respectable place, and not an overnight stay for those who got lost in mountains of tourists.



Something like the Wagristoratore project

The author of the Wagristoratore project was an architect from Milan Piero Portaluppi (Piero Portaluppi) - he worked quite successfully and after the war, and in Milan a street is even named after him. However, the very idea such a way of demonstrating the military capabilities of Italy - the rise railway cars in the mountains and their installation on concrete supports - attributed to him.

By the way, these concrete pillars are the only thing that remains today "from its former glory."

In general, the Swiss understood the "hint" quickly and also set up some military facilities on their side, having the opportunity to fire the entire valley.



This is what the wagons of the burnt Wagristoratore looked like after the end of World War II

As a result, there were no military actions in these territories, and about the idea of ​​annexing Ticino to Italy, for obvious reasons, then especially remembered. But with what eventually happened in Wagristoratore, have questions. Rather, there are two versions, although there is not even an exact date when the hotel was destroyed.

It is assumed that this happened in 1943 in the result of the confrontation between the Italian fascists and the Italian partisans. Some of them occupied the hotel, and someone else - knocked out the enemy by simply burning down the hotel.

The central building was thus completely destroyed, and the skeletons of the wagons, they say, stood until the 1950s, and then disappeared.



What remains today of Wagristoratore