The origins |   The Tibet Mastiff: between reality and legend |   Prehistory |   Ancient history |  Roman history |   Medieval history and the Great Saint Bernard Hospice |   Barry I and the Napoleon era  | The first spreading of the breed  |  Schumacher, the pioneer | 

  If the rocks that form the Pass of the Great Saint Bernard could speak not only would they tell us the almost complete geological history of the planet, but also the whole history of mankind from the Bronze Age on. Being a junction between the Mediterranean and Northen Europe, this ghat, in the heart of the Alps at an altitude of 2.472 m, was the theatre of a constant flow of men and cultures.
  Nowadays appropriate highways and modern tunnels revivifyed alpine traffic, but the Great Saint Bernard never ceased to be a target for sightseers and pilgrimage for people around the world, in particular during the summertime, and noone can avoid the mysterious and ancient appeal that sight has, not even the most disenchanted tourist.
  Driving a car on the national route Aosta-Great Saint Bernard you really have the feeling you are entering the heart of the Alps. Huge mountains overhang the Great Saint Bernard: the Great Combin, the Golliaz, the Velan, with its constant threat of avalanches. Then, after St. Rhemy, the driver encounters a bleak, almost lunar and apocalyptic landscape: jagged mountain faces, indented by atmospheric agents, yawns and endless abysses, whopping narrows and clefts, precipices that seem petrified waves. In the background you see the Mont Blank mountain chain plated in ice.
  Not a tree, a bush, a thread of grass. After hairpin curves, on the highest spot of the ghat, built to be best seen through the fog and the blizzards, the Hospice appeares, with its small lake that is practically always frozen.
  The hill, swept constantly by violent gelid winds, that during storms can exceed 200km/h, has one of the most rigid climates in the world. During the year, the average temperature is below freezing point, and snow falls 30 meters high, not to mention frequent blizzards during the summer. In a permanent winter weather climate any kind of vegetation is inhibited. Only a few forms of vegetation can survive like the lichenous varieties, quite widespread, and in more retrieved areas buttercups and polar willows.
  In this kind of environment, so hostile to life as we know it, lived and worked for centuries, as good samaritans at the service of men, the famous Saint Bernard dogs, angelical giants, known to children around the world for their many deeds described in books. Although today their duties are few, being replaced by electronic surrogates, aircrafts and finally by men, the "Giants of the Alpi" remain the supreme classic and complete auxiliary dogs in rescue actions in high mountain environment, and remain unbeatable symbols of strength, endurance, heroism and loyalty to man..

  The Saint Bernard is the largest of mastiffs. There are many hyopthesis of his origins but not all are proved. The most accredited and trustworthy, for scientific rigour, is the one researched by C. Keller, H. Kramer and A. Heim. Their theory is the Saint Bernard descends from the ancient ancestor, the Assyrian-babylonian "heavy molossus". Incontestable proof of the existence of quite similar dogs was found in the Sumero-Accadic and Assyrian-Babylonian ancient civilisations of Mesopotamia, where hefty and vigorous short-muzzled dogs were diligently bred and used as guard dogs as well as hunting dogs for wild animal hunts.

The first "portrait" of a Saint Bernard, votive situla of Birs Nimrud

  Keller, in his masterful work on domestic animals (Abstammung der ältesten Haustere), remarks the resemblance between skulls of what used to be ancient Assyrian dogs' skeleton bones more than 2.500 years old (now exhibited in the British Museum, London), and the modern Saint Bernards.
  The first "portrait" of a Saint Bernard is also exhibited in the British Museum; recent tests made with Carbonium 14, placed it around the year 650 b.C. The "portrait" is a well-known fragment of votive situla made from terracotta found by Sir Henry Rawlinson near Babilon (Birs Nimrud). It displays in bas-relief an enormous molossus held on a leash by a slave. The animal is so tall his head reaches the slave's shoulder. The size, the muscle and skeletal development, as well as the animal's poise, express might and extraordinary vigour, all characteristics trasmitted through the centuries to the modern Saint Bernard. Other bas-reliefs and graffiti of assyrian origin, found at king Assurbanipal's palace (669-631 B.C.), can be seen at the British Museum. They represent huge dogs hunting lions or wild-asses. They are without a doubt fierce looking molosses, but of the lighter type. Only the foresaid terracotta offers the first true image of the heavy mastiff, ancestor of our Saint Bernard.
  Assyrians were an ancient people of the Middle-East, frequently mentioned by Bible in the Old Testament; they ruled the northen plains of Mesopotamia from about the year 2000 b.C. to 612 b.C. Their capital cities were Assur on the Tigris river and Ninive near the actual Mossul. Their neighbours, the Babylonians, inhabited the southern plains of Mesopotamia, and their main city was Babylon, on the Euphrates river. Both of these people inherited by the Sumerian, another and even more ancient nation, a fantastic level of civilization. Assyrians exerted all arts and crafts. Breeding was among their main interests, including breeding of molossians for hunting purposes, which had Assurbanipal as one of the principal promotors. They were lion-hunters par excellence. To defeat and bear down a lion in those times was not only an audacious exploit, but a true and legendary act of bravery. It was an attribute of dominancy. Assurbanipal hunting adventures with his molossians exceeded and humiliated any other hunting expedition ancient history remembers. As we have just seen, the great king used to bind his love of hunting with the love for his huge mastiffs, that he bred with care and of which he held pictoresque combat accoutrements. These dogs had unusual and unmistakable names, judging by the inscriptions on the fictile statuettes, part of a great collection Assurbanipal had, that reproduce faithfully the vigour and poise of those animals. The most commun names were "he who causes damage", "the extreme judge of the enemy", "he who bites his enemy", "he who slaughters his enemies", etc.
  While in Egypt the light greyhound dominated, the vigorous, fierce mastiff, exact opposite of the former, became the national dog of the belligerent Assyrian nation. The dog had a kind of cult: the cult of strength and vigour. Assyrians were conquered by his leonine vigour, fierceness and almost satanic courageousness that made the dog a kind of faboulos monster, able to scare off other animals.
  The Assiro-babylonian mastiff originated, in the smaller size version, from the Tibet mastiff (Schlanktyp 0 type cattledog), that exists even in present times although it remains a rather rare breed (now and then you could come across an exemplar in Central Europe dog exhibitions; in Italy, thanks to the Molossus Club, we can finally see a few), and in the large size from the "heavy Tibet mastiff" (Rumpftyp), that is today completely extinct.

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  It is worth mentioning this dog, as mysterious as the yeti, known to scientists but extinct without leaving a trace.
  Angelo Vecchio, in his 1898 book Il Cane (The Dog) (2nd ed. 1912) gives this definition: "quite common in the Himalayan plateau, where he is valued as a guard-dog of houses and flocks, in fact the shepards

The heavy Tibet Mastiff (from Beaver)

when descend to the plain to inspect their flock, entrust to these massive and loyal animals their women and homes". And on: "while affable and nice with his masters, the Tibet mastiff is ferocious towards strangers and wayfarers who cross the Himalayan plateau, all of whom agree on the fierceness of that dog".
Another scientist, Paul Déchambre in his book Le Chien (The Dog; 2nd ed. 1946), describes the size of the Tibet mastiff as variable between 85-90 cm, sometimes reaching 1,10 m of height and a weight of up to a 100 kg. These measures however are no longer verifiable, but they could be referred to real Saint Bernard dogs.
  Last but not least, Paul Mègnin, in his 1903 book Nos Chiens (Our Dogs) speaks of the Tibet mastiff as a dog of gigantic size and quite fierce in his general appearance, with a cavernous raucos voice resembling the roar of the lion. Mègnin tells us that the viscount Maurice d'Orlèans, at the end of the XIX century, during an exploration trip to Northern Siria and through arabic rocky regions, had the opportunity of purchasing a couple of Tibet mastiffs. The dogs were brought to France but nobody could domesticate them, so aggressive and ferocius they were, and they ended their days among the wild horses the viscount used to breed in Provence.
  Mègnin too describes the Tibet molossus as a large size dog, of 70 to 90 cm of height and weight of over 75kg (measures more credible than those Déchambre reported, although much superior of the actual Tibet mastiffs).

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  The origin of Tibetan mastiffs can be found in the legendary"Canis molossus", directly derived from the ethnic group of "Canis familiaris inostranzewi", who lived approximately 6.500-6.000 b.C.
  It should be noted that there are many theories on who could most likely have been the ancestor of the domestic dog and on how the domestication process could have started as well as the process of adaptation to man and his needs. Recent studies place the first appearence of dogs in the human society roughly 15.000 years ago, between the palaeolithic and the neolithic era. That ancient ancestor, partially domesticated, probably descended from the "Tomarctus", a short-limbed predator (ancestor of the wolf and of the jackal), who lived 15 to 10 million years ago. The Tomarctus derived probably

Tomarctus skull (with kind permission from Prof. Arbanassi)

from the "Cynodesmus" (who appeared for the first time on the american continent about 20 million years ago), who represented an evolutional stage of the european "Cynodictis" (who lived approximately 30 million years ago), ancestor of the canids and of bears. Reaching in the past we finally find the "Myacis" (who lived about 4 million years ago), who was the progenitor of all carnivore mammals. In the period of 200.000 B.C. The "Canis lupus" (the wolf) appeared in America and in central Europe, in China the "Canis sinensis", the coyote in America, and then the fox and the jackal in Europe.
  Then follows an intermediate period (called "the great hunting era") that lasted from 30.000 to 15.000 years b.C. when the aforementioned species, from the Canis lupus on, spread through Europe and a great portion of Asia. In the same period there is no trace of canids on the African continent. The appearence of the domestic dog or "Canis familiaris", as Lymnaeus called him, is placed between 15.000 and 10.000 years b.C., and more precisely in the previous neaolithic era, towards the end of the magdalene era. The first known dog, the "Canis familiaris Putjani", was followed (approximately 10.000 to 6.000 years b.C.) the "Canis familiaris palustris", also mentioned by Ruetimeyer as "Peat (Peat-bogs) Dog" (or peat dog), ancestor of the spitz and of other breeds of dogs.
  The Bonze Age, that in the area of the Mediterranean lasted from 3.000 to 2.000 b.C., witnesses the evolution of the Canis familiaris towards more defined types. In this same period appeared, as we have just seen: the afore-mentioned "Canis familiaris inostranzewi" (ancestor of all molossus, as well as the heavier and lighter types); the "Canis familiaris matris-optimae", ancestor of the shepherd dog (the Canis familiaris matris-optimae will be the breed to accompany Asian people, smiths and casters, who introduced to Europe metal tools, implements and arms); the "Canis familiaris leineri", ancestor of all greyhounds and of many hunting breeds, and last of all the "Canis familiaris intermedius", ancestor of spaniels, bloodhounds, griffons, etc., whose appearance coincides with the end of the prehistoric period.
  According to Jeytteles, dogs from the old continent had as their ancestors the jackal ("Canis aureus"), the Indian wolf ("Canis pallipes"), the Egyptian wolf ("Canis lupaster"), and the Tibet wolf ("Canis lupus laniger"). According to a hypothesis made by Keller, the massive wolf of the himalayan plateau could indeed be the main wild ancestor of modern molossians..

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  As we have already seen, the eternal dualism between the heavy and the light mastiff, originating from the beginning of time, frequently influenced, in a determined way, all molossian varieties, generating misconceptions of their origin. In Tibet, the "light mastiff" was originally a herd-dog and road-dog. His size was massive, he was extremely resistent to bad weather (in fact he could stay in the open for weeks without suffering any consequence, he kept away bears and other fierce beasts. The "heavy mastiff", described by Aristoteles, was the guardian of Alexander the Great, and was said to be "a protector of extraordinary vigour"; Marco Polo (who came across the heavy mastiff a few times while travelling through Asia) described the dog as "big as a jackass and strong as a lion, resembling the lion both in appearence and in strength of voice", he defended convents and villages, confronting himself, if need be, with tigers as well.
  The Phoenicians, a nation of great argonauts, gave a decisive contribution to the spreading of different breeds in the Mediterranean area, among which were the two types of mastiffs; thanks to their great trading relations with the inhabitants of the British Isles, they introduced the great molossian to that part of the world, where he was immediately appreciated and evolved to the modern English mastiff (Mastiff).
  It is a historical fact that Xerses, king of Persia in 470 B.C. introduced Assyrian molossians in Greece. They were eventually brought in the Mediterranean area by Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, during one of his many expansionistic wars. In those days the mastiffs were already known by the generic name of "molosses" (from the greek region of Molossia). The hypothesis is that Alexander the Great made possible for this breed to spread, with his wars of conquest in distant asian territories. It is certain that in Alexander's times the mastiffs, expecially the heavy ones, were in high consideration.
  The imaginative chroniclers of the time told that Alexander received from the indian king Poros a gigantic mastiff as a gift (it was probably a heavy Tibet mastiff) and that he, impressed by the massiveness of the dog, wanted him to fight boars and bears. But the animal, used to completely different kinds of fights, did not show any interest in the opponents and remained idly lying, watching them. Disappointed, Alexander had the animal killed. When the indian king learned about it, he sent Alexander another gigant molossus, named Peritas, and stressed that he was, as the former one, used to fighting only opponents worthy of him, such as lions and elephants. The indian king notified Alexander that there wasn't another exemplar to equal Peritas, and that if he would put him down as well, he could never have another like it. Alexander made Peritas fight a lion and then an elephant. In both fights the animal faced the opponent with great valiance, so that when the dog died, Alexander named a city after him. Curtius, one of the biographers of Alexander the Great, tells us that another indian king, Sophites, wanted to persuade Alexander of the strength and ferocity of his molossus, and organized a fight in which a lion was attacked and defeated by four of this dogs. An archer, who wanted to separate one of them from the lion, whom he was tightly clutched, grabbed his leg and chopped it off, but the beast wouldn't let go, so he cut off another leg and on and on, until the dog had no limbs. Nevertheless, though half-dead, the mastiff never let go of his victim.
  The chronicles of that period report that in 326 b.C., 156 molossus that Alexander took on for fighting lions and elephants, begun fighting wild beasts and gladiators in the arenas. Aristoteles called the mastiffs "leontonix", "he who descends from lions", so great was the impression these dogs had on him. It is also known that the king of Lydia, Alyates, had an army of molossians, and it was so numerous, that he had to instruct the intendents of the kingdom on the purchase of cattle which the dog-soldiers were fed on. In the same period (about 350 b.C.) Lydia suffered a great defeat in the battle of Thymbrè, mainly due to Cyrus' molossians.
  The nations of Indostan, of arian kin, impulsive and dreamers, were famous in ancient times for their dogs, described as robust, strong, audacious and, as the chronicles of the time state, "of the fierce molossian kin".

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  Romans made the light molossus fight in arenas against wolfs, bears and buffalos; they made the heavy molosses fight lions (it was said that two of these giants could equal the beast), gladiators and slaves (many christian martyrs,wearing animal skins had to face these monsters, and were torn to pieces by them). But the main purpose the Romas held the molosses for was war. The light mastiffs were made almost invulnerable to darts because of the iron shirts and armors they were wearing. They preceeded the assault infantries, often proving themselves crucial for success in battle. After the light mastiffs, the heavy ones intervened and with just a few soldiers made practically inexpugnable the conquered strongpoints.
  After the fall of the Northen part of the Roman Empire, the custom of framing molosses in military combat units was adopted by Barbarians as well and lasted all through the Middle Ages. When Cesar, in 58 B.C., started to conquer Gallia, he brought along light molossians, that then spreaded in the Swiss valleys generating the Swiss Great Cattledogs.
  In fact, during archelogical research of the roman site of Vindonissa, the actual Brugg, many finds were discovered, among which a large number of skulls, anatomically similar to the ones of the modern Swiss cattledogs.
  Forty years later, the roman army occupied all Swiss valleys, reaching the river Rhein. In 12 b.C. Augustus had built the road which connected Aosta to Martigny and which went through the Penninic Alps at an altitude of 2.472 m (later named Great Saint Bernard Pass), the same spot where, in 218 b.C., Hannibal and his elephants passed through towards the south of the Italic peninsula. The Pass of the Great Saint Bernard has been known since ancient times, Gauls Boi and Lingones went through it when migrating towards the Padanian plain and Brennus (390 b.C.) took the same path when marching against Rome. It was often crossed by the Consuls and Cesars with their legions (the trip from Rome to Gèneve took at best eight days). Later, in particular during the Middle Ages, the Pass was the favoured descent to Italy of many people: the Alemannics and the Burgundiones, the Longobards and the Franks, as well as of many emperors, from Charlemagne to Sigismund. It is worth pointing out that the name of "Penninic", according to some, comes from the ancient kelt term "pennine" (which means peak), according to others, it comes instead from the latin "poenus" (which means phoenician).
  Near the actual Pass the Romans erected a temple to Jupiter (Zeus), naming the Pass "Mons Jovis". Close to the temple they built shelters for the legionaries who were to garrison the ghat and an asylum for their canine auxiliaries. Later all roman garrisons used heavy molossians in the guard the of alpine ghats they had conquered in the Valle d'Aosta area. The "mansio", or "hospice", as well as the temple dedicated to Zeus were built by the Romans almost certainly where nowadays stands the Saint Bernard statue. Of this first building there is no trace today, it was completely erased as was the other one emperor Louis the Pious mentions (832) as "hospitale quod estin Mons Jovis". Built on the Swiss side of the mountain (towards the actual Bourg St. Pierre), the hospice was then moved (859) on top of the hill where Bernard of Menton reedify the actual Hospice, after the old one was destroyed by the Saracens. The good monk tried to erect a shelter for pilgrims and wayfarers who lost their way in crossing the ghat and he entrusted this mission to the religious order named after him and which is still faithfully carrying out the task assigned to it by the Saint.
  During the last period of the Roman Empire, the great molosses could spread, apart from the Valle d'Aosta area, in the Giura, in the Bern Oberland and in the Vaud Canton, employed everywhere as guard-dogs for trading and military emplacements.

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