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Germain Sommeiller
Germain Sommeiller (February 15, 1815 – July 11, 1871) was a civil engineer from Savoy. He directed the construction of the Fréjus Rail Tunnel between France and Italy, also known as the Mont Cenis Tunnel. This was the first of a series of major tunnels built in the late 19th century to connect northern and southern Europe through the Alps. Sommeiller pioneered the use of pneumatic drilling and dynamite to achieve record-breaking excavation speeds. This 12.8-km tunnel was completed on December 26, 1870, 11 years ahead of schedule. It remained the longest tunnel in the world until the opening of the Gotthard Rail Tunnel in 1882. Life Germain Sommeiller was born in Saint-Jeoire (now part of Haute-Savoie, France) on February 15, 1815. He graduated in civil engineering at the University of Turin in 1841. He became a Royal Civil Engineer in the Public Transport Department of Savoy in 1845. From 1846 to 1850 he worked for the Cockerill steel company in Liège, which helped bu ...
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Ritratto Di Germano Sommeiller, Ante 1894 - Accademia Delle Scienze Di Torino - Ritratti 0156 B
A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this reason, in photography a portrait is generally not a snapshot, but a composed image of a person in a still position. A portrait often shows a person looking directly at the painter or photographer, in order to most successfully engage the subject with the viewer. History Prehistorical portraiture Plastered human skulls were reconstructed human skulls that were made in the ancient Levant between 9000 and 6000 BC in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period. They represent some of the oldest forms of art in the Middle East and demonstrate that the prehistoric population took great care in burying their ancestors below their homes. The skulls denote some of the earliest sculptural examples of portraiture in the history of art. Historical p ...
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Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is mainly on the western bank of the Po River, below its Susa Valley, and is surrounded by the western Alpine arch and Superga Hill. The population of the city proper is 847,287 (31 January 2022) while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 1.7 million inhabitants. The Turin metropolitan area is estimated by the OECD to have a population of 2.2 million. The city used to be a major European political centre. From 1563, it was the capital of the Duchy of Savoy, then of the Kingdom of Sardinia ruled by the House of Savoy, and the first capital of the Kingdom of Italy from 1861 to 1865. Turin is sometimes called "the cradle of Italian liberty" for having been the political and intellectual centre ...
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Annecy
Annecy ( , ; frp, Èneci or ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of the Haute-Savoie Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region of Southeastern France. It lies on the northern tip of Lake Annecy, south of Geneva, Switzerland. Nicknamed the "Pearl of French Alps" in Raoul Blanchard's monograph describing its location between lake and mountains, the city controls the northern entrance to the lake gorge. Due to a lack of available building land between the lake and the protected Semnoz mountain, its population has remained stagnant, around 50,000 inhabitants, since 1950. However, the 2017 merger with several ex-communes extended the city population to 128,199 inhabitants and 177,622 for its urban unit, urban area, placing Annecy seventh in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Switching from the County of Geneva, counts of Geneva's dwelling in the 13th centur ...
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Bramans
Bramans is a former commune in the Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France. On 1 January 2017, it was merged into the new commune Val-Cenis.Arrêté préfectoral
8 August 2016


Twin towns — sister cities

Bramans is with: * Giaglione, Italy (2010)


See also

*

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Cottian Alps
The Cottian Alps (; french: Alpes Cottiennes ; it, Alpi Cozie ) are a mountain range in the southwestern part of the Alps. They form the border between France (Hautes-Alpes and Savoie) and Italy (Piedmont). The Fréjus Road Tunnel and Fréjus Rail Tunnel between Modane and Susa are important transportation arteries between France (Lyon, Grenoble) and Italy (Turin). Etymology The name ''Cottian'' comes from '' Marcus Julius Cottius'', a king of the tribes inhabiting that mountainous region in the 1st century BC. Under his father Donnus, these tribes had previously opposed but later made peace with Julius Caesar. Cottius was succeeded by his son Gaius Julius Donnus II (reigned 3 BC-4 AD), and his grandson Marcus Julius Cottius II (reigned 5-63 AD), who was granted the title of king by the emperor Claudius. On his death, Nero annexed his kingdom as the province of Alpes Cottiae. History For a long part of the Middle Ages the Cottian Alps were divided between the Duchy of ...
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Pointe Sommeiller
Punta Sommeiller (in Italian) or Pointe Sommeiller (in French) is a mountain of the Province of Turin, Italy and of Savoie, France. It lies in the Cottian Alps range. It has an elevation of above sea level. Etymology The old name of the mountain was ''Rognosa di Galambra'', which derived from the secondary valley of Galambra (a tributary of Dora Riparia). It was then renamed by the geologist Martino Baretti, author of the first documented ascent to the summit, in order to avoid confusions with two neighboring ''"Rognosa"''s, Rognosa d'Etiache and Rognosa del Sestriere. The new name was chosen to honour Germain Sommeiller, the civil engineer which directed the construction of the Fréjus Rail Tunnel between Savoy and Piedmont. Geography In the French subdivision of western Alps it belongs to the ''Massif du Mont-Cenis'' while in the SOIUSA (''International Standardized Mountain Subdivision of the Alps'') it is part of the mountain group called ''" gruppo d'Ambin"'' ( I ...
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Italian Parliament
The Italian Parliament ( it, Parlamento italiano) is the national parliament of the Italian Republic. It is the representative body of Italian citizens and is the successor to the Parliament of the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1943), the transitional National Council (1945–1946) and the Constituent Assembly (1946–1948). It is a bicameral legislature with 600 elected members and a small number of unelected members (''senatori a vita''). The Italian Parliament is composed of the Chamber of Deputies (with 400 members or ''deputati'' elected on a national basis), as well as the Senate of the Republic (with 200 members or ''senatori'' elected on a regional basis, plus a small number of senators for life or ''senatori a vita'', either appointed by the President of the Republic or former Presidents themselves, ''ex officio''). The two Houses are independent from one another and never meet jointly except under circumstances specified by the Constitution of Italy. By the Constituti ...
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Annexation
Annexation ( Latin ''ad'', to, and ''nexus'', joining), in international law, is the forcible acquisition of one state's territory by another state, usually following military occupation of the territory. It is generally held to be an illegal act.: "Annexation means the forcible acquisition of territory by one State at the expense of another State. It is one of the principal modes of acquiring territory... in contrast to acquisition a) of terra nullius by means of effective occupation accompanied by the intent to appropriate the territory; b) by cession as a result of a treaty concluded between the States concerned (Treaties), or an act of adjudication, both followed by the effective peaceful transfer of territory; c) by means of prescription defined as the legitimization of a doubtful title to territory by passage of time and presumed acquiescence of the former sovereign; d) by accretion constituting the physical process by which new land is formed close to, or becomes attached ...
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Giovanni Battista Piatti
Giovanni Battista Piatti (Milan, February 10, 1812 - Milan, September 4, 1867) was an Italian civil engineer from Milan. Life He invented a pneumatic rock-drilling machine that, with small modifications, was used in the Mont Cenis Tunnel. On 12 February 1853, he conceived how to carry out the excavation work, using compressed air, and published: "Proposal for the railroad between Susa and Modane of a new system of propulsion with air compressed hydraulic motors (system experimented in England) and first draft of plan for excavation of the Alps". He did not achieve fame during his life, since the invention was patented by Germain Sommeiller, but his work was recognized, especially by the architect Luca Beltrami Luca Beltrami (November 13, 1854 – August 8, 1933) was an Italian architect and architectural historian, known particularly for restoration projects. Biography Beltrami was born in Milan. He was initially a student at the Politecnico in Mi ..., and admirers co ...
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Severino Grattoni
Severino Grattoni (9 December 1815 – 1 April 1876) was an Italian engineer and statesman. He is best known for working with Sebastiano Grandis and Germain Sommeiller Germain Sommeiller (February 15, 1815 – July 11, 1871) was a civil engineer from Savoy. He directed the construction of the Fréjus Rail Tunnel between France and Italy, also known as the Mont Cenis Tunnel. This was the first of a series ... in the Traforo del Cenisio (the Fréjus Rail Tunnel, also called the Mont Cenis Tunnel, linking France and Italy). He was born in Voghera. Later in life, he served in scientific missions abroad for the Count of Cavour.Gli artisti italiani (architetti, incisori, miniatori, musicisti, pittori, scultori) e le loro opere
By Nino Guerzoni Federici; publisher: ...
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Modane
Modane (; ) is a commune in the Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in southeastern France. The commune is in the Maurienne Valley, and it also belongs to the Vanoise National Park. It was part of the Kingdom of Sardinia until the Treaty of Turin in 1860. Geography Location The commune of Modane is located in the Alps in the department of Savoie between the Vanoise massif to the north and between the and the Massif des Cerces to the south. Crossed by the Arc river, it extends to the doors of the Haute-Maurienne. The issue of the attachment or not of Modane in the Maurienne Valley or Haute-Maurienne differs depending on the disciplines of economics, geography or geology. For economists, Modane is attached to Haute Maurienne, arguing that the city has a very strong influence on the villages of Haute Maurienne, through economic and administrative infrastructure such as shopping centres, schools or the railway station for example. However, for the great ...
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Bardonecchia
Bardonecchia (; french: Bardonèche or ; pms, Bardonecia ; oc, Bardonescha ) is an Italian town and ''comune'' located in the Metropolitan City of Turin, in the Piedmont region, in the western part of Susa Valley. It grew out of a small village with the works for the Frejus Rail Tunnel, the first crossing the Alps. The town hosted the snowboarding events of the 2006 Winter Olympics. Geography The town, which is located about from Turin at the intersection of four valleys, is surrounded by mountains, including several whose peaks surpass . The historic center is set back and elevated (Borgo Vecchio), while the new part of town was built around the train station (Borgo Nuovo). The town has grown thanks to activities related to customs, logistics, and tourism; as a result, it has incorporated some neighboring villages and thus is one of the largest towns in the Susa Valley. Bardonecchia is at one end of both the Fréjus Road Tunnel The Fréjus Road Tunnel is a tunne ...
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