Franzensfeste (; ) is a comune in South Tyrol in northern Italy. It is named after the large Franzensfeste Fortress erected from 1833 to 1838 and Franzensfeste station is also known as an important railway hub. Geography Franzensfeste is located in the southern Wipptal valley on the Eisack river, about south of Sterzing and north of Brixen. The settlement is situated on the western side of the valley, at the Sachsenklemme narrow where it is only a few hundred meters wide, along with the Brenner Railway line and the state road SS12 while the Autostrada A22 (Brenner Highway), running elevated on the same side, pass through the lake in its northern part entering a tunnel on the opposite side; the state road cross than the Eisack river nearby the railway station due north. The valley is confined by the Zillertal Alps in the northeast and the Sarntal Alps in the southwest, rising up to the Tagewaldhorn peak at . History Origin Franzensfeste was founded recently. The village dates from the 19th century when the construction of the fortifications was begun, to which the site is also closely linked in name (into Italian language), and the railway. The parish was originally Mittewald, still the common land, with the two villages of Oberau and Unterau. Archeological findings have shown the area to be settled by 2500 B.C. as indicated by the finding of home pottery. The Wipptal has always played an important role in the transit of goods on the north-south bound, first as the Amber Road between Greece, Sicily and Northern Europe later in the Roman period, between Aquileia and the regions beyond the Alps; also a long stretch of the Roman Via Claudia Augusta has been unearthed. In the 17th century, where the station is now placed, there were a few farms, one of which, was turned into an inn with the name "Post-Reifer". It is still in operation today. Fortress The military importance of the place became evident during the Tyrolean Rebellion in 1809 when General François Joseph Lefebvre, commander of 2500 Royal Saxon troopers, was defeated in an ambush by Andreas Hofer’s Tyrolean insurgents at the narrow which later was called Sachsenklemme ("Gorge of the Saxons”). In the 1830s, Emperor Francis I of Austria wanted to build a defensive system on the strategically-important Brenner route since he feared an invasion from the south. The village was settled for