Great St Bernard Hospice

Around 1050, Saint Bernard of Menthon, archdeacon of Aosta, regularly saw travellers arriving terrorised and distressed, so he decided to put an end to mountain brigandage in the area.

The hospice was placed under the jurisdiction of the bishop of Sion, prefect and count of Valais, thus explaining why the northern versant of the pass is now in Swiss territory.

The St Bernards were specially bred and trained for the role of mountain rescue because they were sufficiently strong to cross deep snow drifts and had the capacity to track lost travellers by scent.

All the oldest and most tried of them were lately buried, along with some unfortunate travellers, under a valanche [sic]; but three or four hopeful puppies were left at home in the convent, and still survive.

In 2004, the breeding of the dogs was undertaken by the Barry foundation at Martigny, and the remaining St Bernards were transferred there from the Hospice.

They remain a tourist attraction, and a number of the animals are temporarily relocated from Martigny to the Hospice during the summer months.

A commemorative monument set up there in a chapel was moved in 1829, so that Desaix now lies anonymous under an altar dedicated to Saint Faustina.

The monastery is the setting for one chapter in the 1857 Charles Dickens novel Little Dorrit, wherein some cold travellers and their mules spend the night, and are compared to some frozen unidentified dead bodies in the mortuary, which had been recovered from the mountain by the Fathers.