Being Jodox von Stockalper – Wikipedia Wikipedia

Kaspar Stockalper (Briga, 14 July 1609 – Briga, April 29, 1691) was a Swiss merchant, notary and baron, known with the nickname ” Big Stockalper “(” Il Grande Stockalper “).
He was born from a rich family of Briga, son of Peter Stockalper, notary, and Anna Maria Imhof. He had fourteen children, but only eight were still alive to his death, in 1691. Of these only one (Peterman von Stockalper) continued the Stockalper lineage through the nephew of the baron (Peter Anton Josef Ignaz von Stockalper) and the great -grandson (Dr Kaspar von Stockalper), which however was the last of the descendants.

The Stockalper family was believed to have been of Italian origin, as deriving from the “De Oldersi” family which in 1330, with Antonio de Oltieri (merchant), she had moved to Berisal’s surroundings.

Who he of Oltieri He had purchased the properties, at the locality called “Stockalpe”, and had built his home, going to abandon, later, the original surname and adopting that of “Stockalper”, more in line with the population of the place of Germanic origins .

Over time the family had then enriched.

He was plurilingual (he knew five of them five: Alto-Vallesian, Italian, German, French and Latin). Already at a very young notary and public scribe, he immediately showed an innate commercial sense. Initially he took care of freight transport on the Sempione Pass and the escort for the processions of nobles during their movements.

Thanks to a policy of international alliances, which soon made it the most influential politician of Valais, built a dense network of relationships on a European scale. His travels allowed him to tighten commercial relationships from Spain to Flanders, obtaining wealth and success, but at the same time also attracting numerous enmities.

He proved to be a tireless and opposing entrepreneur, so much so that they put aside a fortune equal to half a billion Swiss Franks of our times ^[first] . He owned land and buildings throughout the Valais.

After completing his studies, a long study of study and approach to the art of trade began in 1633, which brings him from France to the Spanish Netherlands, during which he tightens relations with various captains of the European industry.

In 1639 he represented the Valais at the Baden Confederate Diet. Is chosen by the diet to represent Briga al War advice , also called Secret advice .

On May 15, 1645 he accessed the highest military function becoming Colonel of the Morge . In 1646 he was appointed Governor of Saint-Maurice. From 1652 to 1670 it is Secretary of State ( Chancellor ).

From 1651 to 1659, to lower the transport costs of the salt to a third (starting from Christmas 1647 the diet had assigned him the position of master of salt For the Valais, a charge that involved the salt monopoly in the region) built an 8 km channel next to the Rhone (in that dangerous point of navigation) – the “Stockalper channel”, between Collombey -Muraz and Vouvry, however fallen in disuse 20 years later, in conjunction with the exile of the baron in Italy. The salt represented a strategic element in the trafficking of the baron and at the same time it served as a means of political persuasion: the high-valley was supplied from Italy, while the basso-vallese received salt from France and Spain, where the baron also had open commercial activities. Salt monopoly that had been detained by the Vallesana Rivale family from 1607 to 1647.

In 1653 he reached the nobility receiving the title of Knight of the Holy Roman Empire .

It also managed half a dozen mines for the exploitation of the subsoil of the Valais and also managed the gold mines of Gondo served by the Stockmlous , while other extractive activities concerned lead (Mörel, Bell, Goppenstein), copper (Val d’Hérens) and Iron (Grund-Lander).

He came to have up to 5,000 employees, giving life – between mines and trafficking of people and goods – to an induced of 20,000 people (think that at the time Briga did not count more than 900 inhabitants).

The Sempione mule track [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

To facilitate the salt trade and encourage its private trafficking, the Stocklper Baron revitalized the commercial traffic that passed from the Simplon, forgotten by the mid -fourteenth century now, arranging and making it safer, around 1630, the old medieval mule track that was worth it the step. In his honor this road was therefore called Stockmlous ^[2] And it was the same Court of France of King Louis XIV who coined for him the appellation of King of Simplon ( King of the Simplon ). This work, which followed the ancient Roman via Romana dating back to the times of the Roman emperor Settimio Severo, allowed to bring the step back to being the main commercial passage between north and southern Europe.

It is of this period the Hospice of the Sempione (now known as Old hospice O Alter Spittel ) built in 1666 for its will on the ruins of a pre -existing structure which dated back to 1235, by the Gerosolimitani.

The works promoted by the Stockalper Baron allowed the development of an efficient postal service, until then entrusted in an impromptu way to wandering monks, players, street musicians and bishopric messengers. Stockalper sensed that the introduction of a fixed postal system would benefit from trade. In 1640 a courier on horseback was thus established that brought the letters from Geneva to Milan in eight days of summer and ten in winter. Along the new mule track Stockmlous New stations with stables for horses were therefore built. In Gondo, to encourage his trade, he had a building built on several floors protected by a central tower, with a warehouse and accommodation function, called Torre Stockalper , now restored and renovated.

The decline [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

On the death of Stockalper, the Sempione pass was however abandoned to himself and the mule track became insecure again due to lack of maintenance; The transport organizations were dissolved, the parking points and the warehouses sold or abandoned and the trade interrupted almost completely. In fact, starting from the Stockalper exile of 1679, the Piedmontese monarchy had managed to divert the commercial transits from the Sempione Pass to that of Moncenisio.
The considerable decrease in traffic along the Stockmlous , whose maintenance was partially financed by customs taxes and tolls, combined with the negligent maintenance of the companies in charge of the Valais of the management and refueling of the Via del Sempione, determined the rapid decline of the Stockmlous .
Only in the last decades of the eighteenth century the mule track Stockmlous It was restored by a descendant of the Baron, on behalf of the Vallesano Council.

The resumption of the idea [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

But it was precisely the passage of the Spanish armies – followed by the French and Austrian ones – by the Sempione Pass during the second half of the eighteenth century which gives step a renewed strategic dimension. Dimension that does not escape Napoleon Bonaparte, who quickly becomes aware of the importance of transalpine accesses for his expansionist aims. Arrived with his army in Italy through the Colle del Gran San Bernardo in May 1800 (for the second countryside of Italy against the Austrians, won in Marengo), while his general Béthencourt goes from the Simplon to the head of a thousand men for one Secondary operation, Bonaparte already on 17 September 1800 promulgates a decree relating to the construction of a new road with the aim of making the route from Brig to Domodossola practicable for cannons. At the time, the path started from Glis instead of Briga, more east of the mule track, at the point where the sausage, tributary of the Rhone river, could be overcome with greater easily ^[3] . The official opening of the road took place on October 9, 1805: later it became the Sempione road.

Manufacturer and patron [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

The Stockalper Baron gave a remarkable impulse to the artistic development of Valais, contributing to the construction of numerous civil and religious buildings, especially in Brig and along the mule track Stockmlous which exceeded the Sempione Pass.

• Between 1658 and 1678 the Baron had a baroque -style castle built in Briga, the Stockalper Castle, still in an excellent condition of conservation and visited (previously he had lived at the Old Stockalper house , built over a century earlier by the family, in 1532, which can still be visited by the side).
• Always in Brig to him he owes the parish church of Assumption Day (Maria Assunta) in the Glis hamlet; The Kollegium Holy Spirit (June 1673) and the College cart (August 31, 1687) ^[4] Both for the Jesuits, who in October 1662 had returned to Briga, in the Aspires hamlet; The Klosters St. Ursula (Monastery of the Orsoline) and the hospital ^[5] .
• In Gondo, the Stockalper tower (1670-1685) must be remembered, at the Sempione Passo del Alto Spittel ( Old hospice ) (1666), the parking stations In Gabi (1676) and Turtmann (Tourtemagne) (started in the years 1670-1674) (both mail stations were not completed due to the baron exile in 1679 and the ruins can still be observed).
• It should not even be forgotten that the Baron also finished buildings beyond the passage of the Sempione, in Italy, where he owned numerous land: he finished (with 5500 imperial lire) the construction of the Sacro Monte of Domodossola at the entrance of the Val Bognanco (which was traveled by the Stockmlous , wanted by him), finished the porch of the church of Varzo, had a house built ^[6] (after 1679) al Monte Calvario of Domodossola (with 2000 imperial lire), where the years of exile passed away from Brig.

Dismissal, exile and death [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

It was also very active in the political life of Valais, covering ever greater public offices over time. He was unjustly accused of having plotted against his own country: four districts of the Valais (Sion, Sierre, Loèche and Viège) had secretly associated to present an accusation act against him at the diet.

Despired on May 4, 1678, the Stockalper Baron is initially condemned to a heavy fine, to the loss of privileges and in fact also to the loss of the salt trade monopoly.

In September 1679 a Swiss court condemned him to death. To save himself, at the beginning of October he repairs in Italy, stopping beyond the Sempione Pass. Welcome to the Ossolans (in the past he had financed the construction of the buildings and chapels of the chapels with 5 500 imperial lire Sacro Monte Calvario In Domodossola), a villa is built there, investing another 2 000 imperial lire, thus remaining in exile at the hamlet Calvary by Domodossola ^[7] , for six years ^[8] .

Let the animosity downhill against him in Switzerland (in the meantime one of his main accusers had died), the Stockalper Baron then made a triumphant return at home on June 5, 1684. At the end of June the diet then decided to drop a part of the accusations , agreeing with the Baron that in the future would have been quiet, refraining from political life and remaining mainly confined to his Castle of Briga, where he died six years later, at the venerable age of 82.

Pummont chronology [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Thanks to the contemporary historian Peter Arnold (Rector of Kollegium Holy Spirit of Briga) it was possible to meticulously reconstruct the conspiracy that determined the accusation of Baron Stockalper in front of the diet. ^[9]

The real motivations would actually be very different from the accusations made official to him: the jealousy of the patriciate Vallesano in the face of the remarkable wealth accumulated over the years by the Baron, the political careers stood out and the social ascents not granted, the personal grudges accrued against him ( Determined by: contrasted loves, addresses to the honor of other families, processes and lands lost due to the collection of debts, etc.).

Among his most heated opponents and detractors must be mentioned: Adrien in Albon di Viège (notary), Jean de Montheys of Sion (Balivo), Antoine De Courten of Sierre and Christian Gasner of Loèche.

Year 1678

March 3: secret alliance between the districts of Sion, Sierre, Loèche and Viège (districts of the Upper Valais, crossed by the Rhone … and by the commercial traffic of the Baron) against Baron Stockalper and its salt monopoly.

May 12-13: The four districts draw up a list of sixteen charges against Stockalper.

May 14: the diet is brought together to become aware of the accusation (including that of lesa Majesty).

May 24: Stockalper signs their resignation, committing to deliver the weapons and ammunition to the seven districts, a large sum of money, the salt and the official documents in its possession.

Summer: in Viège and Loèche the trial against Stockalper is held.

Year 1679

September: the Viège Court Stockalper condemns to the capital penalty.

October 11: Stockalper, now seventy -year -old, flees to Italy through the Stockmlous , made by him forty years earlier through the Sempione Pass. After the early days he goes to live in a home Patrizia who is built at the Monte Calvario , in Domodossola.

October-November: Stockalper goods are put on sale.

December 6: the Sion diet issues a proclamation in which the life of the baron is exposed and criticizes and the crimes he committed, enumerating 32 accusation articles. Twenty -eight of these concern malversation and abuse of power, while three relate to a refusal of obedience towards the authority of the diet itself.

Year 1684

June 5: his main accuser died and crooked the animosity against him at home, Stockalper, now seventy -three, returns triumphant to Briga.

End of June: the diet decides to drop a part of the accusations, while maintaining confiscation on most of its properties. An agreement is reached that allows Stockalper to remain at home as long as he refrained himself from political life, remaining mainly confined to his Castle of Briga.

Year 1691

April 29: He dies at the venerable age of 82 years, almost confined to his castle. However, he remains the merit of having contributed to enriching his country, thicking the Valais and strengthening the political weight of the Eastern Valais compared to the central Valais.

During his life he increased and multiplied his titles and charges ^[ten] . The main ones were:

Title	Period
Châtelin ‘the twisted bony-goo it dizains the brigue ( Castilian by Zwischbergen-Gondo of the Brig District)	1638
Colonel de la Morge ( Colonel of the Morge)	May 15, 1645
Governor of Saint-Maurice ( Governor by Saint-Maurice)	1646-1647
Châtelain de Martigny for life ( Castilian of Martigny Life)	1646-1691
Master of salt in Valais ( Salt ladies for the Valais)	Christmas 1647
Chancellier ( Chancellor )	Christmas 1652-May 1670
Grand Bailli ( Great bailiff , head of the Council of State of Valais)	1670-1678

• Louis Carlen: Kaspar Jodok from Stockalper. Large entrepreneur in the 17th century . University of Augsburg, Augsburg 1991 ( Full text )
• Louis Carlen, Gabriel Imboden (ed.): Kaspar Jodok by Stockalper and the Valais. Contributions to the history of the 17th century . Rott-Publising, Briga 1991, ISBN 3-907816-08-08-0
• Louis Carlen, Gabriel Imboden (ed.): The commercial and invoice books Kaspar Jodok from Stockalpers . Lectures of the fifth international symposium on the history of the Alpine region . Rotten-Publising, Briga 1999, ISBN 3-907816-98-6
• Louis Carlen: Writings of the Stockalper Archive in Brig , Friborg 1963, Brig 1964
• Hans Steffen: The Companies Kaspar Jodok Stockalpers. Example of a soldier in the 17th century . In Leaves from Valais history , 16, 1975
• Gabriel Imboden: Kaspar Jodok from Stockalper 1609-1691. His environment and his castle . Research institute on the history of the Alpine region, Briga 1991
• Peter Arnold: Kaspar Jodok Stockalper vom Tower, 1609-1691 . Opera of 1953 (reprinted in 1972) in two volumes: volume i The rich stockalper 211 pp; Volume 2: The big storage source , 311 pp, Mörel.
• Tullio Bergamini: Gaspare Stockalper, a king in exile . 1995
• Fabrizio de Fabritiis Stockvalper wandering spirit – of water, land and iron (comic), Cim spa Interporto of Novara, 2015.