Glacier melt causes dispute over Italian-Swiss border

The refuge lies near the Testa Grigia peak in the Monte Rosa group of mountains. Keystone / Alessandro Della Bella

An alpine lodge originally in Italy is now two-thirds in Switzerland thanks to global warming, reports Swiss public broadcaster RTS.

This is because the border marked by the Theodul glacier is shifting northwards as it melts. The Matterhorn Guides or Testa Grigia Refuge, which stands at 3,457 metres, has been the subject of intense diplomatic negotiations over three years because of the border shift, writes RTSExternal link. The refuge offers accommodation and food for skiers near the Testa Grigia peak.

The Theodul glacier lost almost a quarter of its mass between 1973 and 2010, giving way to rock. This has forced Switzerland and Italy to redraw a few dozen metres of their border.

According to Alain Wicht, a specialist in delineation of the Swiss border at the Federal Office of Topography (Swisstopo), such adjustments are frequent and are generally settled by comparing the surveys carried out by the two countries’ teams, without political intervention.

He told RTS that the land is generally less valuable. But the presence of the Matterhorn Guides hut means that here there is a building that gives “economic value” to the land.

The strategic position of the building attracts a lot of interest, reports RTS. It is located at the junction of the slopes of Zermatt and Cervinia, one of the largest ski areas in the world. The area is also at the heart of a huge modernisation project that will allow pedestrians to travel directly by gondola from Switzerland to Italy.

A compromise was proposed in November 2021, in which the hut would remain Italian in exchange for a piece of territory that would help Switzerland for a future project, the president of Zermatt told RTS. But the details of this plan remain secret, as it still has to be approved by the state authorities of both countries.