Porta Claudia-Leutascher Schanz

The Porta Claudia is a former fortification at the narrow point of the Scharnitz Pass in the Isar Valley near Scharnitz (Tyrol, Austria), on the Bavarian border near Mittenwald. Today, the B 2 (Germany) and B 177 (Austria) begin at the Porta Claudia – more precisely, at the Scharnitz Pass.

The construction of the dam was commissioned by Claudia de' Medici, Archduchess of Austria and Princess of Tyrol, as a fortification of the important crossing from Bavaria to Tyrol, and named after her. The Porta Claudia was built in 1633 during the Thirty Years' War and expanded in 1670. Goethe described the border in 1786 in his travelogue to Italy as "closed with a rampart that locks the valley and connects to the mountains."

Siege of the Porta Claudia in 1805

During Napoleon's campaign against Austria in 1805 (Third Coalition War), French troops under Marshal Michel Ney besieged the Scharnitz and Leutasch passes on the Bavarian north side. The Porta Claudia included not only the fortifications near Scharnitz, but also those a few kilometers west at the beginning of the Leutasch Valley, the Leutascher Schanz. Ruins of these can still be visited there today. The French VI Army Corps, with 8,000 to 9,000 men, faced 2,200 Tyroleans at that time. Guided by local Mittenwald residents (Bavaria was on the side of Napoleon Bonaparte), the French were able to unexpectedly fall into the rear of the Austrians stationed at the Leutascher Schanz fortification on November 4, 1805, by using the path leading past Lautersee and Ferchensee, laterally past the Grünkopf (1587 m). This allowed them to first conquer the Leutascher Schanz and then, via Seefeld, also the Scharnitz Pass, thus advancing into the Inn Valley and Innsbruck. The path leading laterally past the Grünkopf was consequently named Franzosensteig (Frenchmen's Path) due to this stratagem (it is also marked as such in current hiking maps). Allegedly, only a single shot from a cannon was fired during the invasion of the troops via the path to Leutasch. The cannonball struck the Gasthaus zur Mühle, where it is still kept by the landlady today. After the defeat of Austerlitz and the Peace of Pressburg on December 26, 1805, between Austria and France, Austria had to cede the County of Tyrol and Vorarlberg to Bavaria, and Emperor Franz II had to recognize Napoleon as Emperor.