Overcome, connect, conquer? | Surmonter, connecter, conquérir?

The Alps have always been a bustling place for cross-border exchange and transfer processes. Their deep valleys and high peaks present a geographical challenge that must be overcome through technical achievements. Particularly, the economic growth triggered by industrialization, along with the accompanying societal changes, created a need to develop and integrate previously hard-to-reach mountain regions into value creation chains. As a result, the Alps evolved into a technical space that posed numerous challenges for engineers, architects, and transport planners. This often led to competition for the resources of the Alpine region, resulting in conflicts between countries, regions, and municipalities, as well as collaborative usage strategies, revealing the transnational nature of the history of the European Central Mountains. The publication traces the development of infrastructures and buildings in various Alpine countries in a comparative manner and in their transnational interconnections.