Route des espagnols (the Spanish Road)

With Italy right on the doorstep of the Haute-Tarentaise, just the other side of the Col du Petit Saint-Bernard mountain pass, the region needed careful surveillance and protection. This is how a series of barriers, defence and observational structures came to be planned and built at the end of the 19th century. But the construction in 1913 of the Courbaton and Les Têtes batteries, to counter the rise in Fascism and Nazism, meant wider access than the lone track running from Montrigon to Courbaton had to be provided. So two strategic roads were opened up, one from Peisey-Nancroix and the other from Hauteville-Gondon, to enable men, provisions and ammunition to reach the batteries… These structures were built by veterans of the Spanish civil war who, on fleeing the advancing pro-Franco troops, crossed the border in early 1939 and were rounded up in Argelès-sur-Mer internment camp. Supervised by army officers based in Bourg-Saint-Maurice, they were used all year round as additional labour for the defence and road construction works. This explains why one of these access roads is still referred to as "the Spanish Road" to this day.