Battlefi elds - Forts - Museums - Monuments - Memorials - Areas of interest. PROVINCIA PROVINCIA DI VENEZIA DI VICENZA Battlefi elds - Forts - Museums - Monuments - Memorials - Areas of interest This guide’s contents have been improved, and the guide itself has been reorganised. The idea is to provide visitors with the means to explore the area and uncover some of the signs of what was a major historic event worthy of study also by other means. The guide is an invitation to seek out the sites of the Great War in the Veneto region, and an invitation also to learn more about this period of transformation which so dramatically impacted the prospects of the area and of its peoples. Essential information is provided here of the main sites of interest, where testimony of the Great War in the Provinces of Belluno, Treviso, Venezia and Vicenza can be discovered, studied and preserved. The sites are grouped under three large Ecomuseums which are currently being started up so that the many local historic events which are a part of our shared national history can be narrated in a more satisfactory manner. The guide includes a general map and three section maps with the positions, indicated by various colours, of the sites dealt with in this publication. The sites of the Great War Remembrance − beyond frontiers Remembrance of the Great War, rather than a commemoration, should be This institutional guide dedicated to the main locations of the Great War in the seen as a time of refl ection. Veneto region − with its battlefi elds, fortresses, museums, monuments, cemeteries, We must remember and honour those whose life and youth came to an memorials and areas of historic interest − has been thoroughly revised. end during those tragic years in the lands of Venetia, along a boundary The aim shared by our four provinces of the Veneto Region, the Veneto Region itself, line which is hazy, nebulous and which appears to our eyes, nowadays, a and the Ministry of Culture has nothing to do with celebration of a tragic victory monstrosity generated by rationality: in today’s Europe in which differing which now belongs to our distant past (after millions of deaths, who was the true cultures and identities live and work together without divisions. victor?). The idea, rather, is to acknowledge the suffering of the soldiers of both At that time, more than today, certainly, the Europe of governments stood sides, not to mention the suffering of the civilian populations. Indeed, in this region, apart from the Europe of peoples. And, in the name of the interests and World War I was truly a total war. It struck rural villages and cities alike. It ripped ideals of others − often neither shared nor understood −, hundreds through once peaceful valleys. It ripped into the fl esh of the region’s people. And the of thousands of youngsters were shipped to the fronts to fi ght other wounds have never quite healed. youngsters. Their duty was to see in others the foe, and to hate the foe to While news of the events is transmitted among the people through the writings of the point of laying down their lives. authors such as Lussu, Hemingway, Comisso and so forth, here these memories Today, we remember the blood-soaked earth. We go back to, and (and an awareness of the dimensions of the tragedy acted out here) are handed conserve, the fi elds on which they fought, in a peaceful Venetia that looks down from one generation to the next. Like the carsic rivers of the area, these forward toward the development of its communities. We look forward, memories lead an underground existence, in the form of the stories of the people at while also respecting those events and such sacrifi ce. large, whose sincerity is that much more eloquent in that there is no space here for These markedly diverse, and frequently inaccessible, corners of our ideology. region deserve to be considered for what they are, in the name of a Visitors to the Veneto region cannot ignore this page of its history. It is a page taken beauty enhanced by the fact that, here, historical events took place from the shared history of Italy, since, here, amid suffering and doubt, a national which, if it is our desire that they should never repeat themselves, we consciousness was forged. It is a page taken also from the history of Europe, must not forget. because the troops of more than fi fteen nations fought here. President of the Veneto Region Gianpaolo Bottacin Leonardo Muraro Luca Zaia President of the Province of Belluno President of the Province of Treviso Francesca Zaccariotto Attilio Schneck President of the Province of Venice President of the Province of Vicenza Ecomuseum of the Vicentine Pre-Alps 8 9 1 MONTE PASUBIO (VI)(3 CIMA ALTA - VACCARESSE VI) respectively by the Provinces of Trento Extending from the Pasubio massif, and Vicenza is marked by the Pasubio Battlefi eld Monte Novegno forms the southern fl ank Battlefi eld massif. Until 1918, the very same frontier of the mid-portion of the Posina valley. was the political boundary between Italy 1915 - 1918 Viewed from all sides, the impression 1915 - 1917 and Austria-Hungary. This circumstance Free entry we have is of an imposing bulwark or Free entry explains the extraordinary strategic bastion overlooking the Vicentine plains. Municipalities: importance of the Pasubio massif And this, indeed, was its role during the Municipalities: Valli del Pasubio during the Great War. The area featured Strafexpedition of Spring 1916. When the Schio e Posina Posina an enormous network of mule tracks troops of Austria-Hungary withdrew, the Trambileno (TN) and other lines of communication, the Italian detachments began to fortify the Monte Novegno Vallarsa (TN) most remarkable of which, in terms of zone extensively, above all at the Priaforà Terragnolo (TN) imperviousness, was the “Strada delle strongpoint, the heights of Cima Alta and Gallerie” (the tunnels road), providing Vaccaresse, and Forte Rivon. Today’s border between the areas access to the peaks, in an area which is administered respectively by the Today’s so characteristic of the Dolomites region. border between the areas administered RECOARO TERME VALLI DEL PASUBIO SCHIO SCHIO VALLI DEL PASUBIO VICENZA 2 MONTE MAGGIO (VI)(4 MONTE CENGIO VI) This mighty buttress stretches southward The monumental area of the Monte Cengio and, as it stretches on, it decreases in Battlefi eld is one of the most strikingly evocative Battlefi eld size, starting out from Monte Maggio. We among the itineraries relating to mountain have, here, the summits of the Coston dei 1915 - 1918 warfare: “La Granatiera” (the grenadier) 1915 - 1918 Laghi, Monte Borcoletta, and Corno del Free entry road was carved out of the Cengio’s rocky Free entry Coston, as well as the dramatic ‘towers’ walls looking directly down on the Val of Monte Majo, forming a barrier for the Municipalities: d’Astico valley. The road was linked to a Municipality: upper Val Posina valley. Posina e Laghi system of tunnels, battle stations, cave Cogollo del Cengio This zone among the foothills of the Alps mouth batteries, and mule tracks (lines of is noteworthy not only in terms of its communication), all located in an area of history (notably, the fi rst year of the War extraordinary beauty. until the Strafexpedition, which started here), but also in terms of its features of environmental interest, not to mention the marvellous panoramas. POSINA LAGHI COGOLLO DEL CENGIO TRESCHE’ CONCA VALDASTICO VICENZA ASIAGO 10 11 5 VAL MAGNABOSCHI (VI)(7 MONTE FORNO VI) The Lemerle, Magnaboschi and Zovetto Given its specifi c position, Monte positions were bitterly contended during Forno was prepared for defence by Battlefi eld Battlefi eld the Strafexpedition, which ended when the detachments of the 27th Infrantry Italian detachments (the Forlì and Liguria 1918 Regiment from Styria. It became a major 1917 brigades) repelled the Imperial advance. Free entry strongpoint: in June 1917, it successfully Free entry From April 1918 on, the area was held out against the infantry assault of garrisoned by British units, which Municipality: the Arno brigade which attempted to Municipality: defeated the Austrian offensive of Roana reach Val Galmarara. The refuges and the Enego - Lusiana June 1918. These units were mainly works on the western slopes of Monte responsible for the complex system of Forno are well worth a visit, as is the trenches, the armoured emplacements complex system of tunnels linking the and the refuges which can still be seen zones immediately behind the lines to the here today. Opening and closing cave emplacements and the main line of times: resistance. Every day, 9:00-18:00 (July and August); Sundays, 9:00-18:00 CESUNA ASIAGO (April, May, June, GALLIO ENEGO September, October, VICENZA BASSANO November). ASIAGO VALSUGANA 6 MONTE ZEBIO (VI)(8 MONTE CHIESA VI) Given its central position, Monte Zebio location in June 1916 with units from was a key stronghold along the Austrian Bosnia and Herzegovina, and also from Battlefi eld Battlefi eld line of resistance stretching from Val Styria. The Ljubljana regiment organized d’Assa to the Ortigara ridge. It was 1917 the lines and areas behind the front. We 1916 - 1917 therefore prepared for defence, with a Free entry fi nd important remains here, such as the Free entry complex system of trenches, tunnels HQ hutments or the so-called “Dolina and cave emplacements still largely Municipality: degli Sloveni” (dolina, or depression of the Municipality: visible today. During the summer of Asiago ground surface, of the Slovenians), and Enego 1916 and, above all, during the Battle of the complex Thurmau Tunnel system of Ortigara (10-25 June 1917), the Italian tunnels and cave emplacements (named Monte Ortigara detachments repeatedly attacked the after the commander of the regiment, Austrian positions, to no avail whatsoever.