The front lines on Lake Garda, which was still called Gratsee before World War I, were of great strategic importance. They sealed off the Sarca Valley and thus blocked the Italians' route to Trento. But first of all: the Lake Garda front was a relatively "peaceful" front in World War I. In principle, the Austrians and Italians were equally concerned with holding their positions; there were no real offensives. Rather, field guards and patrols fought a small war. But this was still a far cry from being comfortable, because a "second enemy" had to be defeated: the weather. Even on the smaller 2000-meter peaks on Lake Garda, the soldiers had to deal with snow and cold in winter and heat and dryness in summer.
๏ฟผThe defense line almost always stretched over the peaks and ridges
The frontline stretched from Riva del Garda to Rovereto in a winding shape that was intended to prevent the Italian Alpini from advancing to Trento and across the Etsch Valley. All attempts by the Italians to break through failed at the beginning of the war and efforts to break through were abandoned. The arms race continued, of course, and so did the bombardment - Riva and Rovereto in particular were under constant fire.
Monte Corno - insider tip on Lake Garda
The fact that we can still find the many, absolutely impressive war installations from the First World War is thanks to volunteers in many places. Such as the members of the Arco shooting club. A few years ago they began to uncover and restore their grandfathers' legacy on Monte Corno with a lot of passion and a lot of sweat. Why does a shooting club do this? Because it was the members of these clubs who played an important role in the World War. I quote from my book on this:
When Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary, the Danube Monarchy was completely unexpectedly hit. All the strong fighting groups were far away on other fronts and the Italians could have overrun Tyrol in the first few weeks. But in Tyrol, 38,000 men, the Tyrolean Standschรผtzen, voluntarily took up arms to defend their homeland. They were retired, old and disabled men and young people from the shooting clubs who climbed the mountains and, equipped with only the bare necessities, stood up against the Alpini for weeks until reinforcements arrived. Wives and daughters looked after the Standschรผtzen, carrying food wrapped in aprons up to glaciers and peaks. Source: Sentiero della Pace - on the peace trail from Vinschgau to the Dolomites
Hike details
Start Torbole End: mountain village of Nago Return to Torbole by bus
Length: 7.5
Duration: approx. 5 hours
Difference in altitude: 700 m ascent, 380 m descent to Nago
Difficulty: challenging The hike begins in the pretty mountain village of Nago (1) and is deliberately short, because you need a lot of time here to be able to explore the summit plateau. Monte Corno served the Austrian Standschรผtzen as an important checkpoint and as a safeguard should the Italians break through Monte Brione (next tour) and Monte Baldo and want to march towards Trento. Although the position on Monte Altissiomo was also fired upon, there were never any skirmishes between the warring parties on Monte Corno. During the four years of war, there was therefore plenty of time to expand the summit position. It had almost the infrastructure of a town.
Between olive and chestnut trees, the war path leads us to the summit of Monte Corno (2), where we can still sense the complex dimensions. We come across trenches and communication trenches, tunnels, artillery and gun emplacements. As we look through loopholes - all facing south - we quickly understand why this mountain made a perfect control post: the view is simply stunning. We see Monte Brione, the summit of Monte Altissimo, the foothills of Riva, Torbole and Nago (3). We descend to the latter at the end of the tour.
Translated by Google โข
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