We hear about the Mountain White Since the early years of primary school: we all know that it is the highest mountains in Italy and Europewhich is found between Italy and France and that its top reaches the 4 806 meters above sea level on the sea level. But an aspect that is never particularly clear is whether this top actually belongs to the Italian territory or the French one … Spoiler Alert: there is no univocal response, the top would be Italian-French.
What is Mont Blanc and where it is located
Mont Blanc is part of themassive homonym which develops with a vaguely almond shape in the sector of Western Alps (section of Alps Gray) for a length of about 59 kilometers and an area of almost 650 square kilometers between the Italian and French territory. In this environment, characterized by glaciers, spiers, granite crests and profound valleys, is actually found the highest importance of the European continent, with an overall altitude of 4 806 metersif we don’t consider the Monte Elbrus in the Caucaso chainbetween Europe and Asia. In truth, on Mont Blanc we can distinguish Two different peaks: a “ricy“, located at 4 792 meters and which corresponds to the maximum elevation reached by the mass of rock that constitutes the mountain, and a”ice“, which is found more or less 14 meters higher, created by ice cap which covers the top of the relief and which in some places is about twenty meters thick.
Just the fact that the top of Mont Blanc is not characterized by naked rock makes the altitude of this mountain susceptible to variations over time: theaccumulation of frozen snow The height of the top can vary even a few meters. For this reason, an expedition organized by Chambre départementale des géomètres-experts of Alta Savoia, organizes a relief of the top every two years to evaluate any changes in altitude.
Which country belongs to the top of Mont Bianco: the issue of the border
Establishing the geographical belonging of the top of Mont Blanc is perhaps a more complex question than that of the variation of the altitude, as There are no official sources in agreement And, as we well know, the boundaries are nothing more than human conventions. To make it short, according to theInstitut Geographique National de Francethe top of the highest mountain in Europe is entirely included in French territory. But in the cards in possession of theMilitary Geographical Institute of Florencethe border between the two countries passes in correspondence with the summit. The top would therefore be Italian-French.
Italian or French: the history of the top of Mont Blanc
Everything begins with the signature of the Treaty of Turin (1860), with which the annexation of Savoy and the territories of the old county of Nice to France was sanctioned. The border line traced with this document corresponds to that of the cards kept by the Military Geographical Institute of Florence: that is, it divides the top between the two countries Following the natural border of the watershed ridge.
The treaty, although bilateral and, in theory, still valid today from a legal point of view, however, does not find correspondence in France. A few years after the signature of the document, in fact, the French topographical maps were modified for Move the southernmost borderincorporating the entire top and a wider part of the mountain massif within the territory of France. To this was added, less than a century later, the destruction of the French copy of the Treaty, which occurred during the German occupation of the country in the middle of the Second World War.
The question, therefore, has no significant legal foundations to be flattened once and for all and controversial and insinuations have lasted up to the present day. A step forward in an attempt to resolve the long -standing dispute was supported by the European project of “Alps without borders“, For the creation of geographical maps of the Italian-French Alpine Region with a view to cross-border collaboration.
In the cards that reproduce the territory of Mont Blanc, however, the routes of the borders are not precisely interpretable, as if to fly over the problem, without giving, once again, a clear and definitive response. It must be said that the question now has a relative importance and above all concerns the issues of the responsibility and the respective areas of competence. In the event of rescue interventions or for activities on the territory related to environmental risk, it would be good to know with certainty who must intervene and where. In any case, the growing cross -border collaboration between Italy and France and the mutual support between the two nations make this aspect easier to manage even in the absence of a clear and defined line, even if imaginary.
