Growing up in Ticino we have this mythos of the battle of Giornico (or “Sassi Grossi”, literally Big Rocks). In that battle, less than 600 soldier (175 from Uri/Schwyz/Unterwald/Luzern) + 400 local conscript farmers defeated 10’000 soldier from Milan, inflicting 1400 casualties and suffering only \~50, of which only one was a professional soldier from the “primitive cantons”. Just as a summary:

” The entire Milanese army reached Giornico on 28 December 1478 and outnumbered the defenders by about twenty-to-one. The defenders were able to defeat the much larger force because the Milanese army was confined in a narrow valley, struggling for foothold on the December snow and ice. The Swiss ambushed the army from above, creating confusion by rolling large boulders down the hillside. They reportedly also wore crampons for better foothold. Against this attack, the Milanese army was helpless regardless of its superior number, and they were forced to flee, leaving an estimated 1,400 dead. ”

​

This would make for such a kick-ass movie. Crampons-equipped alpine soldiers setting up traps and thworing boulders by moving cavalry to a forzen river….I can understand why is less famous than “300”, but it was a spectacular war effort and resistance nevertheless. And a bit of insanity from the italian (attacking an alpine valley on the 28th of December? How insane/arrogant are you?)

​

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle\_of\_Giornico](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Giornico)

a bit more info on the German page of Wikipedia

11 comments

  4. There’s thousands of heroic moments done in every countries history. Hell there’s even a 2nd “300” army who kicked out the Spartians.

  5. Maybe because you couldn’t write a good sequel seeing what happened a bit later in the Battle of Bicocca.

  7. Dont know why mate, but swiss history doesnt even really get taught in our schools.
    We learn about tell (who isnt even real) and the rütlischwur. But for real knowledge you have to dig deep. Its like nobody cares 🤷‍♂️

  8. Wow, does sound exactly like the battle at Morgarten, 1315. There as well, the underdog defends against the better equipped and trained Habsburger soldiers. The Schwyzer use logs and rocks when the soldiers pass a narrow valley.

  9. Swiss history is full of these “movie like scenario”. In Geneva there was the « Bataille de l’Escalade  » in 1602 when 2000 soldiers (mercenaries) were sent by the Duc de Savoie to take the city. At night, in the winter, 300 of them tried to get in the city with ladders, ropes and explosives but they got there ass kicked by citizens. There is this famous (verified) anecdote of a grandma that killed soldiers throwing a pot of soup off the fortification. In the end, casualties were 72 killed and 120 wounded on the attacker’s side and 18 on the city side.

  10. The main reason is wider significance for world history. The battle of Thermopylae is famous because it united the always quarreling Greek city states against the foreign invaders, which led to the evacuation of Athens and ultimately to the Persian defeat at the Battle of Salamis. Without the Spartans’ last stand at Thermopylae there may not have been a strong unified response to the invasion, the Persians may have conquered Greece and what today is considered the cultural foundation of western civilization that was later so effectively adopted and spread by the Romans may have been but a footnote of history. Much like most other ancient civilizations are now.

    In short it is famous because it allowed the civilization to survive which served as the religious and ideological foundation for the Romans and by extension all the Western World today. By comparison the battle of Giornico – tactically brilliant as it may have been – is a footnote even in Swiss history, let alone world history.

Leave a Reply