Plöcken Pass

Plöcken Pass
Wind turbine on the Austrian side of the Plöcken Pass
Elevation	1,357 m (4,452 ft)
Traversed by	Bundesstraße 110 Plöckenpass Straße - Strada Statale 52bis Carnica
Location	Austria–Italy border
Range	Carnic Alps
Coordinates	46°36′N 12°56′E / 46.600°N 12.933°E / 46.600; 12.933Coordinates: 46°36′N 12°56′E / 46.600°N 12.933°E / 46.600; 12.933
Plöcken Pass Location of Plöcken Pass

Plöcken Pass (German: Plöckenpass, Italian: Passo di Monte Croce Carnico) is a high mountain pass in the Carnic Alps mountain range at the border between the Austrian state of Carinthia and the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy. It links the market town of Kötschach-Mauthen in the Carinthian Gail Valley with the Paluzza municipality in the Carnia region of Friuli.

A few miles to the west along the ridge is Mt. Coglians, with 2,780 m (9,121 ft) the highest peak of the Carnic and Gailtal Alps. Before reaching the upper Gail Valley, the pass road also crosses the lower Gailbergsattel at 981 m (3,219 ft) in the north.

The Italian name derives from Latin Monte Crucis ("mountain of the cross"), a denotation of the pass in mediæval times. The valley of the Gail River had been a settlement area since the Neolithic era, and a bridle path probably existed already in the Bronze Age. Roman forces under General Tiberius rebuilt the path as a road after the incorporation of the Noricum province in 15 BC, in order to reach the newly conquered lands north of the Carnic Alps from Italy.

The well constructed road was in use throughout the Middle Ages as part of the trade route between Aquileia and Salzburg, also after the Carnia region in the south was conquered by the Republic of Venice in 1420. The former mansio at Timau (Tischelwang, today part of Paluzza) south of the pass was resettled by miners from Carinthia, up to today it is a German-speaking enclave on Italian territory.