MONTGENVRE PASS

French Col De Montgenvre, Italian Colle Del Monginevro, pass (6,083 ft ) in the Cottian Alps of the Hautes-Alpes dpartement, southeastern France, near the Italian border. Lying 5 mi (8 km) east-northeast of Brianon, Fr., the pass links the river valleys of Dora Riparia, Italy, and Durance, Fr. Opened in 77 BC by the Roman general Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great), the pass became the principal route over the Alps into Gallia Comata (Tres Galliae), a Roman province of Gaul. Napoleon built a road across the pass between 1802 and 1807. Until the Treaty of Paris in 1947, Montgenvre was located on the ItalianFrench border. The village of Montgenvre, just west of the pass, is a centre for winter sports.