Fernpass#

Fern Pass, alt. 1,216 m, mountain pass in North Tirol between the upper Inn valley (Gurgl valley) and the upper Loisach valley; divides the Mieming mountains from the Lechtal Alps; cuts through the massive amounts of debris left over from the collapse of Loreaspitze mountain towards the end of the last Ice Age, which blocked the valley which had earlier led further south; contains several small lakes without outlet (Lake Blindersee, Lake Weissensee and Lake Mittersee in the north-east, Lake Samerangersee and Lake Fernsteinersee in the south-west. The Romans made use of the pass when crossing the Alps from north to south ("Via Claudia Augusta"); in the Middle Ages the trade route from Augsburg to Italy ran through the Fern Pass; it was only when Augsburg declined in economic importance that the pass lost its significance. Today the pass is an Alpine route. A chapel "Zu den 14 Nothelfern" (dedicated to the 14 auxiliary saints) with an altar (first mentioned in documents dating back to 1661) is located on the Fern Pass. The nearby Fernstein gorge has a late-Gothic chapel, ruins from the former hunting lodge Sigmundsburg and remains of an ancient Roman road.