The Stelvio Dixi

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Have you been able again to cross a border recently? We have and must say it felt good. The lady seen in today’s photograph did it 90 years ago. The picture is one from a great series depicting the adventures of that little BMW Dixi back in the summer of 1931. When you take a closer look you’ll see the sign above the door on the wall, which shows two arms – they are the flags of Switzerland and Italy and this shot was taken on the Swiss-Italian border. But, with hundreds of miles of border between these two countries, we wondered: would it be possible to find the exact spot of this control?

With Google on our side and a stroke of luck, we did find it. This is the ‘roadman’s house’ on the Piz Umbrail mountain between Lombardy (Italy) and Graubünden (Switzerland) and not far from the much more famous Stelvio Pass. What’s more, the building survives and has in fact hardly changed, only deteriorated!

An article in La Provincia di Sondrio newspaper in 2015 complained that “the place is falling apart and cannot be left like this”. A local resident was quoted: “We have witnessed the ruins and abandonment of the building for years. The roadman’s house will need to be redeveloped or sold as there is no lack of interest”.

A more recent report from Alta Rezia News of May 2021 seems to confirm that there is light at the end of the tunnel for the roadman’s house: “The actions planned with the concession deed include the construction of a ‘Park Gate’ through the redevelopment of the roadman's house, the areas of relevance, the road relics, the renewal and reuse of the 'hairpins' near the building at km 110.390 and, finally, the creation and installation of signs specifically dedicated to cycling information between Bormio and the Pass is planned.” When you look up the place on Google Maps you’ll find it actually is under construction with the roadman’s house in scaffolding.

Now we only need to find that BMW Dixi so that we can reconstruct that picture...

Words by Jeroen Booij. Pictures from the archive and flickr.com.

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