Military Cemetary

Near the spectacular Pordoi Pass, which connects the Cordevole Valley with the Val di Fassa, there has been a German shrine since 1959 in memory of the Austro-German fallen of the Great War. Here lie the remains of 454 soldiers from the German army and 8,128 from the Austro-Hungarian army (in addition to 849 soldiers belonging to the Wehrmacht, the German army in World War II). The site, like the Austro-Hungarian cemeteries managed by the Austrian Black Cross, is maintained by the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge. The structure of the Shrine evokes the typical German Totenburgs, or "Fortresses of the Dead": it is circular in shape (54 meters in diameter), consisting of three levels, and resembles a sort of military defensive structure. On the outer part, the lower level, are the niches from World War II, while the two inner levels, octagonal in shape, house the other fallen. At the entrance, leaning against a wall, is the "Namenlist" with the names of all the buried soldiers, a votive lamp, and several statues of soldiers grieving for the loss of their comrades. The peculiar feature of this Shrine is the simultaneous presence of soldiers from both World War I and World War II. This was due to the circumstances of the time: at the end of the 1930s, Hitler's Reich decided on the construction of several sacred spaces for the Germans fallen in Italy, which, however, were not completed in time due to the outbreak of the war. Work then resumed in the 1950s, also including soldiers of the Wehrmacht stationed in northern Italy during the period of the Italian Social Republic of Salò.