German for 'signal dome' — named for the trigonometric signal placed on its summit during the Italian and Swiss surveys of the 1860s. The Italian name Punta Gnifetti commemorates Giovanni Gnifetti, the priest of Alagna who made the first ascent in 1842.
Site of Capanna Margherita, the highest building in Europe.
Climbed in 1842 by the parish priest of Alagna, Giovanni Gnifetti — after whom the standard refuge below the peak is named — together with a party of locals. The Signalkuppe carries the Capanna Regina Margherita on its summit at 4554 m, the highest building in Europe: a stone-built SAC hut opened in 1893 by Queen Margherita of Italy in person, who walked up from Alagna to inaugurate it. It has functioned ever since as both a refuge and a high-altitude physiology laboratory.
Route lines are approximate — drawn from guidebook waypoints, not GPS tracks. Don't navigate by them.
