The Margherita Hut (, ) is a

mountain hut A mountain hut is a building located at high elevation, in mountainous terrain, generally accessible only by foot, intended to provide food and shelter to mountaineering, mountaineers, climbing, climbers and Hiking, hikers. Mountain huts are us ...

belonging to the

Italian Alpine Club The Club Alpino Italiano is the senior Italian alpine club which stages climbing competitions, operates alpine huts, marks and maintains paths, and is active in protecting the Alpine environment. It was founded in Turin in 1863 by the then fin ...

, located on the summit of () of

Monte Rosa Monte Rosa (; ; ; or ; ) is a mountain massif in the eastern part of the Pennine Alps, on the border between Italy (Piedmont and Aosta Valley) and Switzerland (Valais). The highest peak of the massif, amongst several peaks of over , is the D ...

, a mountain massif of the

Alps The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...

lying near the border between

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

and

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. At above sea level, it is the highest building in Europe. It was originally opened in 1893 as a research station for high altitude medicine which it still is, but also serves as a simply equipped mountain hut for alpinists.

Location

It is also among the largest huts of the

massif A massif () is a principal mountain mass, such as a compact portion of a mountain range, containing one or more summits (e.g. France's Massif Central). In mountaineering literature, ''massif'' is frequently used to denote the main mass of an ...

, together with the

Monte Rosa Hut The Monte Rosa Hut () is a mountain hut located near Zermatt on the Monte Rosa massif (up to ) and above the Grenzgletscher (Border Glacier) sitting on a glacier-free rocky part called ''Untere Platte'' at an altitude of . It is owned by the Swis ...

and

Gnifetti Hut The Gnifetti Hut (Italian: ''Capanna Giovanni Gnifetti'') is a refuge in the Alps in Aosta Valley, Italy. It is located at an altitude of , and provides access to mountaineers climbing any of the fifteen nearby 4,000 metre high summits of the ...

. The Margherita Hut is located in Italian territory, near the international border between

and

, in the Italian region of

Piedmont Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...

. The nearest settlement is

Alagna Valsesia Alagna Valsesia ( Walser German: ''Im Land'', Piedmontese: ''Alagna'', Valsesiano: ''Lagna'') is a ''comune'' and small village high in the Valsesia alpine valley in the province of Vercelli, Piedmont, northern Italy, a UNESCO World heritage si ...

, in Piedmont, starting point for the traditional climb to the hut.

History

The construction of the hut was directed by the Italian Alpine Club in 1889. The hut was pre-built in the valley, then brought to its final destination by mule and then by men, and assembled on site. It was opened on 18 August 1893, in the presence of

Margherita of Savoy Margherita of Savoy (''Margherita Maria Teresa Giovanna''; 20 November 1851 – 4 January 1926) was List of Italian royal consorts, Queen of Italy by marriage to her first cousin King Umberto I of Italy. She was the daughter of Prince Ferdinand ...

, Queen of Italy, to whom the hut is dedicated. The hut soon became an important research centre for high-elevation medicine, under the direction of

Angelo Mosso Angelo Mosso (30 May 1846 – 24 November 1910) was a 19th-century Italian physiologist who invented the first neuroimaging technique, known as 'human circulation balance'. Mosso began his groundbreaking work by recording the pulsations of the h ...

. As the hut was quite small, in 1907 a newer, lower research centre ("Istituto Mosso") was built near the Salati Pass, in Valsesia Valley (

), at an elevation of about . In 1899 a meteorological station was added. The lowest temperature registered was –41 °C in the winter of 1928–1929; in recent years the lowest was –37.5 °C registered on 25 January 2005. A complete restoration started in 1977. The original hut was dismantled and was replaced by the current hut, built in Valsesia in the town of Failungo Superiore, very close to

, which opened in 1980.

Features

The hut is owned by the central committee of the Italian Alpine Club (CAI), but it is managed by the local CAI section of

Varallo Sesia Varallo Sesia (Piedmontese: ''Varal''), pronunciation (Vhuh-rahl-loh) commonly known as Varallo, is a ''comune'' and town in the province of Vercelli in the Piedmont region of Italy. It is situated in Valsesia, at above sea level and some north- ...

. The hut is open in the summer, from early June to early September, the exact dates varying from year to year. It provides recuperation and accommodation, having 70 beds. In winter, there is an unmanaged winter facility with 12 beds. From summer 2017, the performance of

civil marriage A civil marriage is a marriage performed, recorded, and recognized by a government official. Such a marriage may be performed by a religious body and recognized by the state, or it may be entirely secular. History Countries maintaining a popul ...

ceremonies within the Margherita Hut was authorised by the mayor of the nearest town,

. However, couples wishing to get married will be unable to arrive by helicopter, and will still have to make the long glacier hike via one of the normal mountaineering routes.

Access

The hut can only be accessed on foot. The traditional approach starts from

, the town where the first ascent to the summit in 1842 realized by the parish priest of

, Giovanni Gnifetti, was organised. The walk to the hut usually takes two days; climbers spend a night at the

, the

or the Resegotti Hut (from the latter the climb is very difficult and technical since it requires climbing the Signal ridge), from where they set off for the Margherita Hut on the following morning. The walk requires physical fitness and a good knowledge of alpine techniques.

References

Swisstopo Swisstopo is the official name for the Swiss Federal Office of Topography, Switzerland's national mapping agency. The current name was made official in 2002. It had been used as the domain name for the homepage of the instituteswisstopo.admi ...

topographic and cadastral map

External links

Official websiteCapanna Margherita on "Rifugi Monte Rosa"Margherita Hut on HikrWebcam
{{coord, 45, 55, 38, N, 7, 52, 37, E, region:IT-VC_type:landmark_source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title Mountain huts in Piedmont Italy–Switzerland border Monte Rosa Mountain huts in the Alps Mountain huts of Club Alpino Italiano Alagna Valsesia