Drance

The Drance is a river in Valais Switzerland with a length of 14.5 kilometers to the confluence with the Rhône, a maximum length of 43 kilometers . It has a drainage basin of 676 square kilometers . The river is formed from the confluence of the Dranse d'Entremont and the Dranse de Bagnes at the village of Sembrancher. Further upriver the Dranse d'Entremont splits into the Dranse d'Entremont and the Dranse de Ferret.

In 57/56 BC Julius Caesar sent Servius Galba with the Twelfth Legion and some cavalry to open the Great St Bernard Pass. The legion fought the Veragri at the village of Octodurus along the Drance river and drove them across the river before establishing a camp near the river. The Seduni and Veragri attacked the legion camp a few days later in the Battle of Octodurus. In 1349 a wooden toll bridge and dam are mentioned near La Bâtiaz village . In 1595 the river flooded and destroyed a chapel in La Bâtiaz and damage in Bagnes. In 1818 a glacial dam gave way below Giétro Glacier releasing 18 million cubic metres of water into the river, killing 44 people and destroying many structures along the river. The last covered bridge in use in Valais today was built in 1829 to replace a bridge over the Drance which was destroyed in the 1818 flood.

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