Rhine-Reuss-Rhôneweg: Saillon - Martigny

To the Roman city at the foot of the Great St. Bernard

 In the second-to-last stage from Disentis to St. Maurice, we hike through the Central Valais at the end of the Wine Trail. Behind the vineyard village of Branson at the Follaterre nature reserve, we cross the Rhône bend and stop for a bite to eat in Martigny. The Roman Emperor Claudius (41-54) had the Forum Claudii Vallensium built here in 16 squares. A Roman temple of God (mitraeum) can be visited on the occasion of an archaeological tour in the garage floor of a block of flats, another Roman temple now stands in the middle of Picasso, Matisse, Klee, etc. in the Fondation Pierre Gianadda. It was "rebuilt" with the most successful museum in Valais. The Romans needed this city as a strategic bastion at the foot of the Great St. Bernard (at that time "In Summo Pennino", the only Swiss Alpine pass mentioned on the Roman map of Peutinger). A predecessor of today's parish church was the first episcopal church in Valais until the bishop moved to Sion shortly before 600. Just behind the Fondation Gianadda, the Fondation Barry breeds the St. Bernard dogs in its barryland with an attractive museum, which have saved many pilgrims from freezing to death.