A melting glacier in the Alps has shifted the border between Switzerland and Italy, putting the location of an inn in the Italian mountains into dispute, according to ‘The Guardian’.
According to the same newspaper, the border runs along a drainage divide – the point at which meltwater will flow down both sides of the mountain towards one country or the other.
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But the retreat of Theodul Glacier means that the watershed has crept towards the Guide del Cervino guesthouse, a refuge for visitors near the 3,480-meter Testa Grigia peak.
On a recent visit to the on-site restaurant, Frederic, a 59-year-old tourist, asked: “So – are we in Switzerland?”. The answer was the subject of diplomatic negotiations that began in 2018 and concluded with a compromise last year, but the details remain under wraps.
When the refuge was built on a rocky outcrop in 1984, its 40 beds and long wooden tables were entirely on Italian territory. But now two-thirds of the accommodation, including most of the beds and the restaurant, are technically located in southern Switzerland.
The issue came to the fore because the area, which depends on tourism, is located on top of one of the biggest ski resorts in the world, with a major development, including a cable car station that is being built a few meters away.
A deal was struck in Florence in November 2021, but the result will only be revealed when it is stamped by the Swiss government, which will not happen before 2023.
“We agreed to split the difference,” said Alain Wicht, border director at Switzerland’s national mapping agency, Swisstopo.
Wicht participated in the negotiations, where both parties made concessions to find a solution. “Even if neither side won, at least no one lost,” he said.
The Italian-Swiss border crosses the alpine glaciers, the border follows the watershed line. But Theodul Glacier lost nearly a quarter of its mass between 1973 and 2010.
This exposed the rock beneath the ice, altering the drainage division and forcing the two neighbors to redraw a 100-meter stretch of their boundary.
Wicht said these adjustments are frequent and usually resolved by comparing readings by land surveyors in border countries, without involving politicians.
“We are vying for territory that is not worth much,” he said, adding that this “is the only place where we suddenly had a building involved”, giving the land “economic value”.
Jean-Philippe Amstein, former chairman of Swisstopo, said such disputes were usually resolved by exchanging parcels of land of equal area and value. In this case, “Switzerland is not interested in obtaining a piece of glacier”, he said, and “the Italians cannot compensate for the loss of Swiss surface”.
Although the result remains a secret, the refugee’s manager, Lucio Trucco, 51, has been told he will remain on Italian soil. “The refuge remains Italian because we have always been Italians,” he said. “The menu is Italian, the wine is Italian and the taxes are Italian.”
For now, on Swisstopo maps, the solid pink strip of the Swiss border remains a dashed line as you pass through the refuge.
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