A bit of history …

It all began in 15 B.C. when the Roman General Drusus the Elder, the adopted son of Augustus, decided to open a passage through the Alps for the military incursions in Rhaetia-Vindelicia and in the Noricum, today known as Austria. The immense job of building the road was completed 60 years later in 46-47 A.D. by Drusus’s son, Emperor Claudius (41-54 A.D.), to connect people and goods between the Adriatic Sea and the Po River with the Danube River, at the northern frontier of the Empire.
The only certain sources regarding the Via Claudia Augusta are two milestones, one found in Rablà/Rabland near Merano/Meran (South Tyrol, Italy) and the other in Cesiomaggiore (Belluno, Italy). These two important relics have left historians with a thorny conundrum to resolve. While both records cite the same destination of the road, the important centre of Augusta Vindelicorum, today known as Augsburg, they indicate different starting points: the Rablà milestone refers to the area surrounding Ostiglia, near the Po River, whereas the milestone in Cesiomaggiore cites the port area of Altino, near Venice.

Although there are still many questions left to be answered, historians unanimously agree on the existence of a single section of the Via Claudia Augusta that led from Tridentum (Trento) along the Adige River to Pons Drusi (near Bolzano/Bozen, South Tyrol), continued towards Maia (near Merano/Meran), and passed through the Resia Pass to come to an end after stretching through the Valley of Inn and Lech, just beyond Augusta Vindelicorum (Augsburg), in a town on the Danube near the present-day Donauwörth. The section of the important Roman way until Tridentum followed a bifurcation. One branch moved from the vicus in Hostilia (Ostiglia) and arrived in Tridentum by way of Verona, where it intersected another important route, the Via Postumia. Another branch, the more debated by historians and archaeologists, started at the important harbour of Altinum (Altino), on the Adriatic Sea and moved through the municipium of Feltria (Feltre), arriving at Tridentum along the Valsugana.

Initiated by Drusus as an artery of conquest and defence, Emperor Claudius continued to develop the Via Claudia Augusta during his reign, which led to the formation of populated stationes originally used for changing horses that gradually grew and fortified. Development continued in the following decades, evidenced by the many archaeological vestiges discovered along the entire route of the Via Claudia Augusta, for many years the only road network between the Rhaetic and Adriatic regions.

Back in the 2nd century A.C., several sections of the road were replaced by more modern corridors, such as the Brennero, which became negotiable. The subsequent Barbarian invasions that led to the fall of the Roman Empire did little to improve the situation.

Despite changing and evolving, this monumental Roman artery of European scale has managed to retain its importance over the centuries and most of its route still represents a vital passage for communications and commerce between Southern and Northern  Europe.