Friedensweg (Dolomites)

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Military climb at Creston Popera

The Friedensweg ( Italian Sentiero della Pace ) is a long, inner-Italian high-altitude path along the former Italian-Austrian front line of the First World War in the Alps . He was the mid-20th century based on military used substitute walkways of the Alps War created and one of the most significant historical distance hiking trails in northern Italy.

The Friedensweg has a length of about 700 kilometers. It runs from the Stilfser Joch (Passo Stelvio) on the Swiss border to the Sesto Dolomites ( Sesto ), 150 kilometers away as the crow flies , and descends near Rovereto into the fertile Adige Valley. The summit region is partially over 3000 meters. In total, the Friedensweg covers around 37,000 vertical meters in the ascent and 38,000 vertical meters in the descent.

Politico-military background

From 1915 to 1917 the Dolomites were the scene of fierce fighting for two and a half years when the war between Italian and Austro-German troops raged here in the high mountains (Rayon I of the Italian front ). Most of the silent witnesses of this time of privation for tens of thousands of soldiers have survived to this day: elaborate fortifications , holes and arrow slits in the rocks, rusting shrapnel, devastation of the great blasting events, etc. Only the often adventurous paths themselves began to deteriorate.

Gschwent plant near Lavarone

The idea of ​​maintaining the military platforms and facilities as part of a reconciliation project between Tyrol and Italy emerged soon after the Gruber-Degasperi Agreement (1946). The agreement was supposed to lead to the autonomy of South Tyrol , which was separated from Austria in 1919 , but the earlier Italianization policy gained momentum again in the 1950s and 1960s .

So the work on the Friedensweg was only continued more quickly afterwards. Today the paths and monuments are a popular destination for tourists and mountaineers, and the caverns carved deep into the steep rock walls are a reminder of the times of war on the language border . The South Tyrol package finally concluded in 1972 makes this memory largely painless for both sides today.

Course of the Friedensweg

The Friedensweg begins in the west almost at the Swiss border at the Stilfser Joch ( 2760  m ) and leads into the Sexten Dolomites , near today's border with Austria ( East Tyrol ). It stretches over 700 kilometers through the romantic mountains of Lombardy , Trentino - South Tyrol and Veneto . The path crosses the six Alpine regions of the Ortler Alps , Adamello Presanella Alps , Lake Garda , Vicentine Alps , Fleimstal Alps and the Dolomites . The lowest point of the path is in Riva del Garda (70 m), the highest on the summit of the Marmolada , Punta Penia (3343 m).

The route begins at the Stilfser Joch, the highest Italian mountain pass , where the current border between the provinces of South Tyrol and Trentino is located. While the frontline stretched over the Ortler glaciers (with the highest position in European history) and Königsspitze , the Friedensweg runs along their foot and can be walked on by experienced mountain hikers without alpine equipment. In the Ortler Alps and Adamello-Presanella Alps, it leads several times over passes beyond the 3000 meter mark. The high path becomes flatter in the adjoining Lake Garda mountains, but now runs over well-known peaks such as Monte Cadria , Monte Altissimo di Nago and other mountains over 2000 meters. Then the path descends into the fertile fruit and wine country of the Adige Valley near Rovereto, where the Italian Historical War Museum is the largest World War Museum in the area. In the Vicentien Alps, the route first leads over Monte Zugna, the summit of Cima Carega and finally to Monte Pasubio - the "Mountain of 10,000 Dead". The blown-off summit (Dente italiano) still impressively shows the consequences of the mine war, in which the opponents undermined themselves through tunnels and blew up the generic positions with thousands of tons of dynamite. Then the Friedensweg leads over the high plateaus of Folgaria and Lavarone to Lake Caldonazzo . Many fortifications such as Forte Belvedere (Gschwent), Lusern , Forte Cherle and Vezzena can be visited on this section . The long-distance hiking trail leads through the Fiemme Valley Alps to Passo Rolle and from there through the Dolomites. The mountaineering highlight of the Friedensweg is the Marmolada (alpine equipment required for high-altitude tours and via ferrata, otherwise bypassable), whose glacier was a real city in the ice in World War I thanks to kilometer-long tunnels and buildings built in crevasses. With the Col di Lana one also crosses another war mountain that was a victim of the mine war and is now the epitome of the Dolomite War. The path leads over the Lagazuoi to Cortina d'Ampezzo and the Three Peaks (2999 m) in the middle of the Sexten Dolomites. Through the towers of the Sesto sundial (Einser, Zwölfer-, Elferkofel and Zehner ( Rotwand )) it goes to Sesto and the Friedensweg ends there .

The main ridge of the Southern Alps ( Carnic Alps and Karawanken ) is a natural continuation . The first part, the Carnic High Trail (Via della Pace), follows the border between South and East Tyrol , the second the border ridge between Friuli and Carinthia . In Slovenia another peace trail, the Pot Miru, leads along the scenes of the First World War.

Sections and route conditions

The peace path can be hiked in its entire length in around 45 stages. The following sections are given in the literature:

  • Stilfser Joch to Passo Tonale (Ortler Alps): 5 days
  • Passo Tonale to Lardaro (Adamello-Presanella-Alps): 5 days
  • Lardaro via Riva del Garda to Rovereto (Lake Garda mountains): 10 days
  • Rovereto to Caldonazzo (Vicentine Alps): 9 days
  • Caldonazzo to Passo Rolle (Fiemme Valley Alps): 7 days
  • Passo Rolle to Sexten (Dolomites): 9 days

The first two sections in the Ortler Alps and in the Adamello Presanella Alps are characterized by difficult mountain hiking trails and high alpine altitude, which require experience and fitness. These stages are usually accessible from July to September. This also applies to the section in the Dolomites. The remaining sections are classified as medium-difficulty mountain hiking trails and do not run above the 3000 meter mark. They can usually be hiked between June and October, sometimes as early as May. To climb the Marmolada, the highest Dolomite peaks, one needs full swing - and via ferrata -Experience and associated equipment. The summit can also be bypassed for mountain hikers. Currently, some paths in the Fiemme Valley Alps and the Adamello-Presanella Alps are still closed, not passable and must be bypassed due to severe storm damage from 2018.

See also

literature

  • Romy Robst: Sentiero della Pace: On the path of peace from Vinschgau to the Dolomites. 45 stages. With GPS tracks . Bergverlag Rother; 2020, ISBN 3763345620
  • Helmut Dumler: On the path of peace to the Dolomites. Athesia Spectrum, Bolzano.
  • Hubert Fankhauser, Wilfried Gallin: Undefeated and yet defeated. The mountain war on the Carinthian border 1915 to 1917. Stöhr, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-901208-48-8 .
  • Hans Gasser: Sentiero della Pace in Northern Italy - Mountain of Hope . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . July 26, 2014.
  • Gabriele Schaumann, Walther Schaumann : On the way from the Plöckenpass to the Canal Valley. On the trail of the Carnic Front 1915–1917. The Open Air Museum of the Mountain War 1915–1917. Hermagoras, Klagenfurt / Ljubljana / Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-7086-0025-8 (with tour guide).

Web links

Sentder Friedensweg. In: sanmartino.com. Retrieved July 9, 2016 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sentiero della Pace - Course of the Peace Path. In: Stage hiking. April 5, 2019, accessed on January 20, 2020 (German).
  2. ↑ Romy Robst: Sentiero della Pace on the peace path of Vinschgau in the Dolomites. 45 stages. With GPS tracks . 1st edition 2020. Bergverlag Rother, Oberhaching, ISBN 978-3-7633-4562-5 .