Pramand Road: Pramand Fort – “Saracen Gallery” – Fort Jafferau – Fort Foëns – Fort Bramafam Museum OFFROAD

La Road Fenil-Pramand-Foëns-Jafferau with The Seguret or “Dei Saraceni” Tunnel is a scenic and spectacular road that winds along the orographic left side of the Dora upstream of Exilles and “looks” mirroring the westernmost part of the Assietta ridge is a panoramic route of extraordinary tourist importance with high historical and cultural value.

Rolling Road No. 79 Fenil-Jafferau, was built beginning in 1890 to connect with the valley floor the Fenil, Pramand, Föens and Jafferau batteries, built for the strategic defense of the Bardonecchia basin, with a useful artillery barrage view at Pramand on the descent from Cesana on Oulx.

The original road in 20 kilometers and over 1,700 m. of elevation gain went up to the Jafferau Fort at an altitude of 2,775 m. (the second highest fort in Europe after the Chaberton Battery); the other 12 kilometers of branches reach on the original treaty the Pramand Battery (elevation 2,162 m) and Fort Foëns (2,177 m.), for a total development of 32 km. The route started from the first hairpin bend where SS.24 is today on the Serre le Voute landslide in Salbertrand.

The Pramand Battery is reached by a short branch-off of about 1.3 km from the esplanade of Colletto Pramand at 2087 m., turning left. Thus a short ascent leads to the remains of the Pramand Battery at an altitude of 2,106 m. and its 4 rotating turrets: an incredible vantage point over the entire Upper Susa Valley and the 4,000 French Meije and Ècrins. An equally fascinating scenery with a 360° view will be had at the 2,775 meters of the Jafferau Battery reached after passing the tunnel, passing the fork in the falsopiano for Fort Foëns and ascending after long traverses over the watershed of the Valle Fredda to the Colletto Basset with a 180° bend.

The real jewel and the main feature of “Military Road 79” is precisely the spectacular Seguret or Pramand Tunnel, also known as the “Gallery of the Saracens“, a good 876 meters long and dug in a curve under the limestone spires of Mount Seguret between the two Great Wars.

The one-piece, U-shaped excavated structure is unmatched by any other military rolling stock in the Western Alps.

The excavation of the tunnel was started in 1924 and took 4 years of work, until 1929,; it became essential even then to protect the military carriageway from the fragility of the slope, pure dolomite rock, falling boulders and debris from the walls above, and from fallout water.

The access/exit route to the west is the dirt track section, a track about 8.4 km long made after the war that after about 7 km without major changes in level (around 2100 m.), with some steep switchbacks then reaches into the territory of the Municipality of Bardonecchia around 1900 m. the paved road Bardonecchia, Millaures, Jafferau reservoirs.

This entire section is currently subject to regulation with opening to motorized vehicles only on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

At the end of this route arrived in Bardonecchia we propose to the bikers a last short stretch to reach the Fort Bramafam
.

Fort Bramafam now a museum and valuable work of rehabilitation of a military fortification with permanent layout and exhibitions on the memory of the military history of the Western Alps. The road built in 1890 to serve Fort Bramafam is a section of about 3 km that departs from SS.335 in Bardonecchia.

The fortification was built between 1874 and 1889 and is one of the largest fortified works of the late 19th century in the Cottian Alps: it was erected to defend the Turin-Modane railway line and the Fréjus railway tunnel. With its batteries it controlled the village of Bardonecchia and the Rho and Fréjus Valleys and held the Italian entrance to the railway tunnel at gunpoint from possible French attacks. Un transitional work that combines the use of stone and lime and concrete with the adoption of artillery installations that were futuristic for those years. In the late 19th century, Bramafam was the most important fortification in the Cottian Alps, heir to Fenestrelle and Exilles, and predecessor to Chaberton.

From here one can then easily continue and reach Bardonecchia, but the former military road continues for a few kilometers to Punta Colomion (2,050 m.) where another military route also arrives: the Beaulard-Puy-Punta Colomion-Passo Mulattiera.