Forts (First World War)
The Great War in Valsugana and on the Lagorai
The forts are the evidence of the events that happened here during the
First World War. These areas were, as a matter of fact,
the border between Austria and Italy, the location where the enemy armies faced each other.
On the 24th of May 1915, with the beginning of the war, the Italian troops started – slowly but surely – to penetrate along
the Brenta valley and on the Cima D’Asta-Rava-Tolvà massif. That summer of the same year, the Italian troops were already in Borgo Valsugana and lived peacefully together with the local population, aiming to eventually get to Roncegno Terme and Novaledo.
Some not very convinced Italian military actions towards
Panarotta and the warhead of
Val di Sella, after having advanced towards the mountains of Roncegno and towards
Val Calamento, were the main events of Winter 1915-1916, but the debut of the Austro-Hungarian offense in May of 1916 shut down any further attempts, forcing the Infantry and the Alpini to a strenuous retreat to the mountains to the East of the stream Maso and the valley floor, on the line of Ospedaletto.
The attacks in Autumn-Summer of 1916 to Central Lagorai, although resulting in the occupation of Mount Cauriol and of part of the Busa Alta and the Cardinal, weren’t able to change the deadlock situation which had been in place since the consolidation of the dominating Austro-Hungarian positions.
This said, the war revolving around the mines planted in the East end of
Lagorai on the peaks of Colbricol was succesful in its intention.
The conflict, which had already become a war of position, dragged strenuously on during 1917, with the only resounding exception of the action of Carzano (18 Semptember 1917), until the retreat to
Mount Grappa in the beginning of November as a
result of the Battle of Caporetto.
From that moment on, Valsugana and Tesino became the retrograde dedicated to rest and reorganisation for the Austro-Hungarian forces, which were engaged on Grappa, Valbrenta and the Highlands frontline.