Brusio Spiral Viaduct

Most spiral railways are buried in mountainsides; the Brusio viaduct is the exception, a nine-arch stone circle standing in the open at the bottom of Val Poschiavo where the Bernina line has to shed altitude on its way down to Tirano. It was built in 1908, and because the ground was too soft and the slope too gentle for a conventional gradient, the engineers looped the track through a full turn on masonry - so a train passes over its own route in plain sight. The Bernina line is part of the Rhaetian Railway World Heritage site, and this is its most photographed structure. The line climbs from palm-tree country at Tirano to over two thousand metres at the Bernina pass without a rack.

What you actually see

• A full circle in the open - nine stone arches instead of a hidden spiral tunnel.
• Trains crossing their own path - the loop visible in one glance.
• World Heritage railway - part of the Rhaetian Railway listing.
• A line with no rack - adhesion working all the way to the Bernina pass.

When to go

All year. An hour, or ride the line.

Honest expectations

The viewpoint is a lay-by beside a road with limited parking. Trains pass at intervals - check the timetable or you will wait. Riding the line is far more expensive than the photograph. The village around it is ordinary.

Nearby

Poschiavo is up the valley; Tirano in Italy is at the end of the line.