Following the international conference held in Sesto/Sexten on September 2 and 3, participants and interested parties had the opportunity to walk and experience firsthand some of the important sites of the World War I front lines on the Three Peaks Plateau. On Sunday, September 4, with beautiful weather, the group of about 30 participants met with archaeologists Rupert Gietl (Arc-Team) and Gianluca Fondriest (Free University of Bolzano) at the Drei-Zinnenhütte/Rifugio Locatelli-Innerkofler. The archaeologists led the participants in two groups on an itinerary that went from Forcella Col di Mezzo/Col di Mezzi Scharte to the Kuppe Ost (Calotta Est) with the Hauptmann Demian Galerie (galleria capitano Demian), Toblinger Knoten (Torre di Toblin), Sexten Stein (Sasso di Sesto) e Forcella Lavaredo (Paternsattel).. Touching on some of the most significant strategic positions of the high altitude war in each area, the archaeologists shared insights and results of the research conducted as part of the project Written in the Landscape. Places, traces and memories of World War I in the Sexten Dolomites. Participants traversed war and trekking trails, were able to observe and better understand this landscape thanks to the exceptional guides, and were even taken inside a tunnel carved into the rock. They thus had a valuable chance to learn how to read the many traces of the war, still partly legible in the landscape after more than a century.

The walk took place as part of the research project “Written in the landscape. Places, traces and memories of the World War I in the Sesto Dolomites ” (WiL), on the occasion of the beginning of the work of surveying and documenting the traces of the Great War in the project area. The conflict archaeologist Rupert Gietl (Arc-Team) and the researcher Gianluca Fondriest, accompanied by the project manager Waltraud Kofler Engl and the team of the Platform Cultural Heritage and Cultural Production, carried out a survey of the project area in order to identify and quantify the presence in the landscape of material traces of military settlements and infrastructural works – trenches, tunnels dug into the rock, remains of barracks, bases of cableways, a cemetery, etc. – and the evidence of the fighting and the soldiers’ barrack life, with the aim of planning future survey work that will take place during the summer months.

The 3D documentation of the remains of the structures will make use of a photographic methodology based on SfM (Structure from Motion) and MVS (Multiple View Stereovision) techniques. The data will be acquired over the course of several surveys through differential GPS (Global Positioning System) and total stations aimed to record geolocation information. Data management will be performed through free GIS applications, while different cartographic Open Data will help to develop base maps for the project.

Together, these surveys will offer immersion in a complex and “temporalized” landscape, where the layering of nature, culture, and tragic events tell of an endless process of erasure and overwriting. If in some cases the imprints of the wartime operations in the Alpine landscape seem to have been partially reabsorbed by the natural elements, in others they emerge as real figures structuring the landscape, charged with painful and traumatic memories and at the same time an integral part of our perception of the place.

The challenge of the project is to make these traces readable and meaningful, linking to the work of historical analysis and archaeological documentation with the socio-cultural research on memories and participatory heritage-making, in order to build a new narration able to communicate to a contemporary observer the layered and entrenched memories dimension of this “archaeological plane” of high altitude, immersed in the iconic landscape of some of the most famous peaks of the Dolomites.

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Report on the presentation of the research project “Written in the Landscape” at Haus Sexten by Dr. Thomas Benedikter

Mayor Thomas Summerer offered welcoming remarks to the public in attendance for the presentation of the project “Written in the Landscape. Places, traces and memories of the First World War in the Sexten Dolomites.” The event was held last Saturday, June 26, in the Haus Sexten. Rudolf Holzer, a well-known journalist from Sexten, shared stories and pictures of the war events from 1915 to 1918 and the evacuation of the village.

The war in the Dolomites and its effects have already been studied extensively from a historical perspective, emphasized Dr. Waltraud Kofler Engl, principal investigator. Yet the traces of the war at high altitudes in the Sexten Dolomites, as on other mountain fronts, will gradually disappear from the landscape and therefore need to be identified and documented. The events of the war, the destruction, the evacuation and the reconstruction of Sesto are inscribed as traumatic events not only in the landscape, but also in the individual and collective memory of the inhabitants of Sesto. The objective of the project is to explore, connect, and transmit these traces.

By combining historical research in local and national archives with the documentation of material traces in the landscape and with the testimonies collected among the inhabitants, and with the participatory involvement of the population, the project aims to investigate not only unpublished aspects of the events of those years but also the cultures of memory and the understanding of history by the residents. It will also seek to initiate a dialogue with the nearby communities of Comelico.

As Prof. Stefan Schmidt-Wulffen (unibz) observed in his remarks, the participatory workshops with artists are intended to provide both locals and visitors with a new approach to the topic.

An exhibition, a website, a conference, and a publication are planned. The project is led by the Cultural Heritage and Cultural Production Platform of the Faculty of Design and Art at the University of Bozen-Bolzano in collaboration with the association Bellum Aquilarum, the Sexten Tourism Association, the Austrian Society for Research on Fortifications, the Ethnological Association of South Tyrol (EVAA), and the War Museum Rovereto. The funding comes from the Research Südtirol/Alto Adige 2019 program.

Professor Susanne Elsen from the Faculty of Education (unibz) emphasized the need to highlight, in addition to the events of war, the vicissitudes of the civilian population, particularly women and children. Together with social scientist Dr. Thomas Benedikter, Elsen invited the participants to actively contribute to the “narrated history” of their ancestors and to participate in the project with their own perceptions. Historian Dr. Sigrid Wisthaler, director of the Bellum Aquilarum Association, moderated the event and presented the work of the association, which has been extremely active since 2005 in preserving and communicating the events of the war.

“Cultural tourism should convey awareness of and respect for the place, its people and its history,” remarked tourism association vice president Judith Rainer; “it is important for visitors to be aware of what happened here in the 20th century in order to understand the reasons why we Southeasterners are the way we are.”

Conflict archaeologist Dr. Rupert Gietl, from the Arc-Team company, presented a video that showed the latest methods for field research in difficult mountain terrain.  During the summer of 2021, material traces and military settlements in the Three Peaks area will be documented without invasive interventions on the ground.

“We can’t even imagine the desperate situation our ancestors were in back then,” deputy culture officer Judith Villgrater concluded; “where soldiers fought a hundred years ago, we spend our free time today. It is not only important, but also exciting and moving to learn more about the living conditions of our grandparents and great-grandparents, to learn about the history of our neighbors, and to pass these memories on to younger generations.”

On Sunday September 27th, on the occasion of the European Heritage Days 2020 sponsored by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities (MiBACT), the Platform Cultural Heritage Cultural Production organized the walk “Places, Traces and Memories of the First World War in the Dolomites of Sesto”, an initiative that is part of the research project “Written in the Landscape: Places, Traces, and Memories of World War I in the Sesto Dolomites” (WIL). As Bellum Aquilarum describes, “For the Austro-Hungarian and German troops, the Croda Rossa was extremely important as an observation point towards the enemy positions of the Comelico, as well as an exceedingly strong defence bastion for the Sesto Valley.”

The European Heritage Days 2020 walk was led by archaeologist Rupert Gietl, expert in conflict archaeology, historian Sigrid Wisthaler, director of the Bellum Aquilarum ONLUS Association of Sesto, Pietro Michieli, vice president of Bellum Aquilarum, and Waltraud Kofler Engl, director of the Platform Cultural Heritage Cultural Production of the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano. The event was attended by members of the community, including several professors from the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano.

On Sunday September 27th, on the occasion of the European Heritage Days 2020 sponsored by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities (MiBACT), the Platform Cultural Heritage Cultural Production organized the walk “Places, Traces and Memories of the First World War in the Dolomites of Sesto”, an initiative that is part of the research project “Written in the Landscape: Places, Traces, and Memories of World War I in the Sesto Dolomites”. As Bellum Aquilarum describes, “For the Austro-Hungarian and German troops, the Croda Rossa was extremely important as an observation point towards the enemy positions of the Comelico, as well as an exceedingly strong defence bastion for the Sesto Valley.”

The European Heritage Days 2020 walk was led by archaeologist Rupert Gietl, expert in conflict archaeology, historian Sigrid Wisthaler, director of the Bellum Aquilarum ONLUS Association of Sesto, Pietro Michieli, vice president of Bellum Aquilarum, and Waltraud Kofler Engl, director of the Platform Cultural Heritage Cultural Production of the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano. The event was attended by members of the community, including several professors from the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano.

The path started from Sesto, where, after welcome greetings and an introduction by Waltraud Kofler Engl, visitors were divided into three groups. The group ascended the Prati di Croda Rossa by cable car. From here, the group followed as the path wound its way along the mountainside through various stages of the Open-Air Museum of the Great War. The group was led on an emotional journey among the material remains–artifacts and traces of settlements, shacks, posts, cable cars, trenches and caves–today barely recognizable among the rocks and paths of one of the most fascinating natural landscapes in Europe. Yet, the history and community memories were brought to life by the expertise of the guides, who skillfully intertwined the most famous events of the Great War that took place in the Anderter Alpe, the Croda Rossa, the Tre Cime and the Cima Undici with the myriad personal and daily life stories of the soldiers and populations downstream, suggesting the constantly evolving geographies of the dolomitic landscape.

The controversial and dissonant legacy of the First War thus has become a shared educational experience through a critical process of co-producing heritage with local groups, following the guidelines expressed by the Faro Convention adopted by the Council of Europe in 2005 and embraced by the Platform for Cultural Production Cultural Heritage. At the end of the walk, the group was welcomed by the mayor of Sesto Thomas Summerer, who thanked the organizers for the awareness-raising initiative on behalf of the war landscape of the Sesto Dolomites.

We thank the Bellum Aquilarum Association and Rupert Gietl for sharing their expertise with the public and for the passionate research, promotion and dissemination of the heritage of the Sesto di Pusteria Dolomite areas. This Association is carefully tracing and cataloguing through open-air exhibits the historical evidence “inscribed in the landscape” of the tragedy of the Great War

We also sincerely thank all those who enthusiastically joined the initiative and we look forward to seeing you again at the future events!