On 28 December 1478, near Giornico in the Leventina valley below the Gotthard Pass, a rear guard of 175 Swiss Confederate soldiers and about 400 local men attacked a much larger army of the Duchy of Milan and put it to flight. Milan then gave up its claim to the valley, which stayed under the Swiss canton of Uri.1
Battle of Giornico
28 December 1478 · 547 years ago
A valley between Milan and Uri
The Leventina, the upper valley of the Ticino river, controlled the southern approach to the Gotthard Pass, and for most of the 15th century the Duchy of Milan and the Swiss canton of Uri fought over it. In 1466 it had been awarded to Uri, but Milan would not let it go, and the quarrel grew worse when the duchy sided with Charles the Bold of Burgundy, then at war with the Swiss.2
In November 1478 the men of Uri crossed the Gotthard and marched into the Leventina, where the people of the valley, long hostile to Milan, welcomed them. Other Swiss cantons joined in, and on 30 November the Confederate army camped before the walls of Bellinzona. After a siege of about two weeks the fortress still held out, and the Swiss withdrew back over the pass.3
The ambush at Giornico
Milan sent an army to win back the valley. It reached the Magadino plain on 16 December. The Historical Dictionary of Switzerland puts it at 10,000 men, while the Swiss broadcaster RSI gives about 8,000. Only a rear guard of 175 Confederate soldiers had stayed behind, reinforced by about 400 men of the Leventina, and they took up position near Giornico.4
On 28 December the small force put the much larger Milanese army to flight. In Ticino the fight is called the battaglia dei Sassi Grossi, the Battle of the Big Stones. Elizabeth Camozzi of RSI explains the name: the Leventines caught the Milanese column by surprise in the narrow valley and rolled tree trunks and boulders onto it, throwing it into a chaos in which it could not maneuver.5
Peace
After the defeat Milan gave up the Leventina, which returned to Uri, while Bellinzona stayed Milanese. A peace of 1480 brought the Sforza dukes' final recognition of Uri's rule, and in 1487 the cathedral chapter of Milan gave up its own rights in the valley.6
Also on this day
Battles of the Sinai
28 December 1948 · 77 years ago
Israeli brigades under Yigal Allon's Southern Command pushed into Sinai against the Egyptian army during Operation Horev, taking Umm Katef and Abu Ageila. They hoped to reach al-Arish and encircle the Egyptian force, but political pressure made them withdraw from Sinai.
