The Golden Egg Frontier – Smuggling of people and goods between Valtellina and Val Poschiavo, 1800-1950

Andrea Paganini researches the history of the Italian-Swiss border between Valtellina and Poschiavo. He sheds light on smuggling, which for centuries served as both a survival strategy and a path to prosperity, profoundly shaping the identity of the population. Borders are not merely dividing lines, but spaces of encounter and economic, social, and cultural exchange. In times of crisis, and especially during the Second World War, smuggling was linked to the entry of asylum-seeking refugees and to liberation struggles. Based on previously unexamined sources, the book "La frontiera dalle uova d'oro" focuses on the period between 1800 and 1950 and places particular emphasis on the protagonists of this cross-border dynamic. It reassesses the history of the Alpine border valleys not only as important hubs for freight transport, but also as the scene of remarkable human destinies often ignored by historiography. The work was created as part of a research project at the Institute for Cultural Research Graubünden (ikg).