Col di Lana
| Col di Lana | ||
|---|---|---|
 Col di Lana, from Buchenstein. |
||
| height | 2462 m slm | |
| location | Belluno Province , Italy | |
| Mountains | Dolomites , Fanes group | |
| Dominance | 2.5 km → Settsass | |
| Notch height | 265 m ↓ Passo Sief | |
| Coordinates | 46 ° 29 '48 " N , 11 ° 57' 33" E | |
|
||
| Normal way | Over the Valparola pass over Sief-Sattel to Monte Sief, then over the Knotz to the summit | |
| particularities | The traces of the war still visible 100 years after the end of the war | |
 Chapel on the Col di Lana |
||
The Col di Lana ( Ladin Col de Lana ) is a 2462 m high mountain in the Fanes group in the Dolomites . It is located near Livinallongo del Col di Lana (German: Buchenstein ) in the province of Belluno ( Italy ).
Like the neighboring Monte Sief, the mountain was fiercely contested between Austrians and Italians during World War I and is now a memorial to the war in the Dolomites .
Fighting 1915/1916
In 1915/1916, 12 Italian infantry and 14 alpine companies made repeated attempts with heavy losses to storm the summit, occupied first by the German Alpine Corps and then by the Austrians, killing 278 Italians in avalanches alone. But that's not the only reason why the mountain was given the name “Col di Sangue”, “Blood Mountain” by the Italians. The Italian army, like all other warring parties of the First World War, tried to conquer the summit by deploying a relatively large number of soldiers, with great losses of their own being accepted.
The Italian lieutenant Gelasio Caetani, who was employed as a pioneer , finally drafted the plan for undermining the mountain, which was carried out quietly with hand drills and chisels. At the beginning of 1916 the Austrians recognized by an artillery observer at the Pordoi Pass that the mountain summit had been undermined. The Austrians began to build a counter mine and blew it up on April 5, 1916. This counter mine , however, was too far away from the Italian blasting tunnel. This was loaded with 5 tons of explosive gelatine . On the night of April 16-17, 1916, the 5th Company of the 2nd Regiment of the Tyrolean Kaiserjäger was replaced by the 6th Company under Lieutenant Anton von Tschurtschenthaler . The fighting reached its climax on the night of April 17-18, 1916, when the summit was blown up at 11:30 p.m. The Austrians under von Tschurtschenthaler then had to give up the mountain; however, they were able to hold their own on Monte Sief , which is connected to the Col di Lana by a summit ridge, and thus prevent an Italian breakthrough in this area.
On the summit there is now a chapel in memory of the soldiers who died in the war. From the war, ruined trenches and barrel trenches and some remains of barracks have been preserved, and there is a small museum about the fighting.
Road network
An ascent takes place from Pieve di Livinallongo (1465 m) via the closed Rifugio Alpino on the Pian della Lasta (1835 m); There is a road to the hut. The panoramic view includes the north, the other summit of the Fanes , the east, the Tofane and the Nuvolaugruppe , in the southeast the Civetta , in the southwest of the Marmolada and to the west the Sella group one.
literature
- Anton (Toni) von Tschurtschenthaler: Col di Lana 1916. Schlern- Schriften, Volume 179, 1957.
- Major General Viktor Schemfil: Col di Lana - History of the fighting for the Dolomite summit 1915–1917. Series of publications on contemporary history of Tyrol, Volume 3, Book Service South Tyrol E. Kienesberger, Nuremberg 1983, ISBN 0002284219 .
- Alberto Giacobbi: Il fronte delle Dolomiti (1915/17). Ghedina Publishing House, 2005.
- Walther Schaumann : Guide to the scenes of the war in the Dolomites. Verlag Foto Ghedina, 1973.
- Heinz von Lichem : Mountain War 1915–1918. Volume 2, Athesia Publishing House, 1997, ISBN 88-7014-236-1 .
- Gunther Langes : The front in rock and ice. Athesia publishing house, 1997, ISBN 88-7014-118-7 .
- Erik Durschmied : Dance of Death at Col di Lana: Battle for the blood mountain of the Dolomites. Athesia-Tappeiner Verlag, 2017, ISBN 978-88-6839-268-0 .
Web links
- War at Col di Lana (Italian)