Napoleon crosses the Great St Bernard Pass
- When
- May 1800
- Where
- Great St Bernard Pass, Alps
In May 1800, First Consul Napoleon led a French army across the Swiss Alps via the Great St Bernard Pass into Italy.
In May 1800, Napoleon Bonaparte, the 30-year-old First Consul of the French Republic, led an army across the Swiss Alps into Italy, aiming to surprise the Austrian armies that had reoccupied the peninsula while he was still in Egypt. The army used the Great St Bernard Pass, described as the last Gallic invasion over it. The crossing was later depicted in Jacques-Louis David's Napoleon at the Saint-Bernard Pass and Paul Delaroche's Bonaparte Crossing the Alps.
Sources
- Napoleon Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-27
- Great St Bernard Pass Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-08
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