Brig

Brig lies in the upper Rhône valley of Valais, at the northern approach to the Simplon Pass. Trade across the pass connected the town with northern Italy. In the seventeenth century the merchant and politician Kaspar Jodok Stockalper expanded a mule route across the Simplon and built a trading network around Alpine transport. His three-towered palace in Brig, built between 1658 and 1678, reflected the wealth and influence that trade brought him. Stockalper fell from power and went into exile in 1679. A carriage road across the Simplon opened in 1807, giving the route a new form; Valais became a Swiss canton in 1815. Brig's history is closely tied to the movement of goods and people between the Rhône valley and the southern Alps.