Memories of the return to Sesto/Sexten Memories of the return to Sesto/Sexten
  • Written in the landscape
    • Landscapes of war
    • War infrastructure
  • The two fronts
    • Winter among the peaks
    • Life as a soldier
    • Health, religious rites, cemeteries
    • Characters
  • Inner front and memory
    • Destruction and evacuation
    • Return and reconstruction
    • Voices from Sesto/Sexten

  • The challenges that the soldiers had to face daily on a high mountain front like that of the Sesto/Sexten Dolomites were fiendishly difficult, especially during the cold winter months. Avalanches, frostbite, lack of supplies were normal circumstances for the soldiers located on the Three Peaks Plateau. Even in the summer months, however, the situation was not completely rosy, because the snow was replaced by bombs, rifle shots and machine guns. Sometimes the living conditions became unbearable and someone would end up disobeying the orders of superiors: in those cases, military justice intervened, often with the utmost severity. (GF)

  • Elements of daily life
  • Military discipline and punishments
  • Prisoners of war
  • Jungschützen

  • In the second half of the nineteenth century, Sesto/Sexten became a popular and well-frequented tourist resort, gaining a certain prosperity. The Sesto/Sexten Dolomites were quite seductive, boasting an incomparable landscape and, for mountaineers, the opportunity to conquer the peaks with famous local mountain guides. From time immemorial, however, Sesto/Sexten was also a border town with the Kingdom of Italy and was therefore included in the military structures and plans for a possible war action. The barrier of Sesto/Sexten, with the fortresses of Haideck and Mitterberg, was to prevent an Italian advance and breakthrough in Val Pusteria/Pustertal. Built in the 1880s, at the outbreak of the First World War, the fortresses were by then obsolete and hardly able to withstand the fire of modern artillery. Despite this, both were still used by imperial troops, if only to confuse the enemy. Life in an area that suddenly had become the front line was not easy for the inhabitants of Sesto/Sexten. The quartering and military requisitions in Sesto/Sexten and Moso/Moos put a strain on the relationship between the population and the army.
    This section intertwines the investigation of the events of Sesto/Sexten and its inhabitants during the years of the war – through the results of historical-archival research – with that of the culture of memory of the First World War in the descendants and inhabitants of Sesto/Sexten – through socio-cultural research that involved local communities in the co-production of a common heritage. (SK)

  • Voices of Remembrance: The First World War in Sexten
  • In search of traces of memories
  • The focus group
  • The collectors
  • Archive of interviews

  • When the first Italian shells fell on the village in July 1915, it quickly became clear that the inhabitants of Sesto/Sexten were no longer safe in their homes. At the beginning of August came the order to evacuate the village with a nighttime operation conducted under fog. The men were already at war, and it was mainly women, children and the elderly who had to pack up basic necessities and flee the village. Many sought refuge with relatives and friends in nearby villages. At first, few of them thought that their stay would last long. But things changed on August 12, when Italian incendiary bombs hit the village, and several buildings, including the parish church, were destroyed by flames. Some valuables were rescued by the soldiers, but many inhabitants of Sesto/Sexten lost all their belongings. Only a few refugees managed to secure a home and a regular income during the war. Those who soon run out of cash and savings and were unable to provide for themselves and their relatives had to turn to the state authorities. The paper trail of countless requests for support for refugees made to the Austrian state helps us in present times to reconstruct the difficult fate of the poorest of the refugees in exile. Due to the fame of the tourist resort of Sesto/Sexten, especially in Viennese high society, a number of fundraising and aid drives were carried out successfully, benefiting the population of Sesto/Sexten and enabling the town to overcome at least the most difficult moments. However, many of inhabitants had a strong desire to return home as soon as possible. (SK)

  • Sesto/Sexten between tourism and war
  • The destruction of Sesto/Sexten
  • The refugees of Sesto/Sexten
  • Memories of the evacuation of Sesto/Sexten
  • Life in exile

  • The imperial and royal military leadership did not allow individual farmers to return to the hamlet of Außerberg/ Monte di Fuori until the mid-summer of 1917, when they were allowed to return to tend the harvest. These families were also accompanied by the parish priest Heinrich Schwaighofer, and a small chapel was built for them in the woods for mass (Waldkapelle). Only after the shifting of the front following the rout of Caporetto in 1917, were the inhabitants of Sesto/Sexten able to return to the village and begin the first work of evacuation and reconstruction in the spring of 1918. However, in the last year of the war, the difficulties of the population, aggravated by inflation and food shortages, were great and some families were forced to entrust their children to farmers from other communities, as they were unable to procure the bare necessities for themselves. The real reconstruction of the village could only begin when Sesto/Sexten was annexed to the Italian State, which financed the reconstruction work. Finally, in 1923, eight years after the destruction and flight of the population, the reconstruction of the village was celebrated with a party. The village and its inhabitants, after the most difficult period of their history, sought in the following years to restore and expand their status as a popular and appreciated tourist village. (SK)

  • Return and reconstruction of Sesto/Sexten
  • Memories of the return to Sesto/Sexten
  • The Waldkapelle
  • Memories of the reconstruction

  • Paths, mule tracks, cart tracks, trenches, artillery and machine gun emplacements, caves, barracks, cemeteries, every structure made by human hands has left traces on the Three Peaks Plateau, transforming it deeply. Intimately linked to the landscape, infrastructures are grafted and inscribed on it, shaping it and remaining visible even over a hundred years after the conflict.
    Both on the Austrian and Italian sides, the infrastructure of the territory consisted of three main lines: the advanced positions (those that had the first impact with the opposing front; they could also have an offensive function, such as the Sasso di Sesto/Sextenstein and the Torre di Toblin/Toblinger Knoten), those of maximum resistance (the real front, with all its defensive systems, such as the Torre dei Scarperi/ Schwalbenalpenkopf  or Forcella Lavaredo/Paternsattel) and subsidiary positions (the rear, with all the logistical equipment). Considering the roughness of the terrain and the distances, even the connections along the front could be problematic, especially in the winter months, and therefore the armies equipped themselves with telephone and telegraph lines, optical communication systems, as well as with powerful cableways, motor and hand, for the transport of materials. During the night, wide beams of light produced by searchlights and reflectors illuminated the strip of land between the two fronts, in order to prevent surprise actions. Cannon, howitzer and mortar shots marked the soldiers’ days, shaping the landscape with unmistakable craters. (GF)

  • Transport, roads, trails
  • Cableways
  • Telephone and telegraph lines
  • Aviation in mountain warfare
  • Searchlights
  • Caves and tunnels
  • Food supplies
  • Settlements and barracks

  • The war at high altitude required considerable logistical and material effort for the care of the wounded and sick. In the high mountains there were only first aid structures, while intermediate structures, more spacious and organized, were located in the valley floor. For the most serious cases, transfer to military hospitals in territories even farther away from the front was organized. In addition to historical photographs, there remain recollections of the health infrastructure and biographies of doctors who worked at the front or who visited it.
    For many, religiosity played an important role in making the harshness of war bearable. The private one, of the individual soldiers, can be reconstructed with extreme difficulty through some objects or personal diaries. The rites of official religiosity, on the other hand, are well documented by photographs, drawings and written sources. These sources show that religiosity itself was often exploited for propaganda purposes and to support the war effort. Parish priests and chaplains, such as Feldkurat Josef Hosp on the Austrian side and Don Pietro Zangrando on the Italian side, supported with conviction the causes of their respective staffs, to the extent that they intervened at times: on the front, faith and patriotism were closely intertwined.
    The general staff prepared numerous cemeteries for the fallen. At high altitude, there were emergency cemeteries, in some cases located near the front lines. Time has left barely visible traces of these places. On the Austro-Hungarian front, the cemetery of Toblingerdörfl and that of Zirbenboden are known, both well documented by photographs of the time. Between the two wars, the remains of the soldiers were exhumed and moved to the large cemeteries dedicated to the fallen, in ossuaries or in village tombs, partly for ideological and political reasons. (GF, SK)

  • Military medical service
  • Religion
  • Cemeteries

  • The landscape that characterizes the area on which the research of the Written on the Landscape project focused is the Dolomite medium and high mountains, upon which military structures and infrastructures were grafted. From a naturalistic point of view, a monographic report of the Italian I Army Corps of 1917 proves to be particularly revealing, in which we read: “The region in question is part of the Dolomite Alps, of which it forms the extreme eastern edge, and, in this region, the characters of the Triassic formation are very marked, with local tectonic disturbances […]. The phenomena of erosion have acted intensely on dolomite, a constituent element of these rocks, so as to form irregular and steep slopes, furrowed by deep gullies. The typical example of the intensity of this erosion is given by the Tre Cime di Lavaredo; and where erosion has manifested itself most, shales and sandstones have been laid bare.”
    The report is very detailed and also focuses on the intricate situation of water: “From the orographic complexity of the region results, by natural consequence, a corresponding hydrographic complexity, and it is noteworthy that in a relatively small area there are watercourses unfolding in different and opposite directions. Thus, while the Rio Marzon, the Rio Cengia and the Rio Giralba all have the general north-south direction, the Bacher Bach goes from south to north; and while the Boden Bach runs from west to east, the Schwarze Rienz [Rienza Nera] descends from east to west.” This is followed by climatic considerations, in which the minimum winter temperatures that have been recorded can drop to -30° C, and insights on the vegetation, ranging from coniferous forest, to mountain forest, to rhododendron.1Archivio dell’Ufficio storico dello Stato Maggiore dell’Esercito, Roma, Monografie del I Corpo d’Armata – Genio – Sistemazione difensiva, AUSSME_B1_110D_23A.
    A complex natural landscape, therefore, that did not make life at high altitude easy for the hundreds of men who faced each other for twenty-nine months, summer and winter, in the Dolomites. (GF)

  • Written in the Landscape 2022
  • Plateau of the Three Peaks
  • Mount Paterno/Paternkofel
  • Sasso di Sesto/Sextenstein
  • Torre di Toblin/Toblinger Knoten
  • Passo Grande dei Rondòi/Wildgrabenjoch
  • The panorama as a military instrument

  • For the soldiers who found themselves fighting on the Three Peaks Plateau, winters were long and snowy. The snow fell from October to April and could last until late June in the shaded areas of the highest peaks. The minimum temperature often dropped to -30°C at night, hovering around 0°C during the day.
    Frostbite and avalanches soon became familiar dangers. To help the soldiers survive in such conditions, both staffs provided detailed equipment and instructions. Each Italian soldier, for example, received two sets of woolen garments and three heavy blankets. The troops in the trenches also received coats and shoes lined with fur, clogs, balaclavas, leg wraps, socks, waterproof clothing and sleeping bags. To avoid frostbite, antioxidant fat was distributed to spread on the feet. To limit the damage caused by avalanches, officers from both armies had maps at their disposal showing the points most likely to cause snow loss. Despite this, the winter at high altitude resulted in hundreds of victims.
    As time went on, the general staffs began to take advantage of winter conditions. The attack on Sasso di Sesto/Sextenstein on 21 April 1917 is a clear example of this. The approach of members of the Austro-Hungarian army to the Italian lines took place through a tunnel dug hundreds of meters in the snow. This tunnel made it possible to catch the sentinels by surprise and temporarily conquer the position. It also required the training of departments specialized in the use of winter equipment, including skis used for stealth and surprise attacks as well as sleds for the transport of materials. (GF)

  • War in the high mountains
  • Winter and avalanches
  • Winter equipment

In the early summer of 1917, after two years of evacuation, many farmers demanded to be allowed to return to the valley, not least because of the growing famine. In June 1917, twelve families on the mountain finally received permission to work the fields. In a forest ravine, the farmers built a simple wooden chapel known as the Waldkapelle on a large boulder.
At the beginning of November 1917, the Italians withdrew from the Sesto/Sexten front. However, a return to the village during the winter was out of the question. Hardly any house was habitable. In addition, there was a lack of food for the people and fodder for the livestock. The war damage was widespread.
In March 1918, the first war refugees returned home. They created makeshift buildings and set up the “Spritzenhütte” of the fire brigade as an emergency church. The school classes were accommodated in the shooting range and in the dairy building.
Another tough test awaited the people of Sesto/Sexten at the end of the war in November 1918. Hundreds of soldiers of the Habsburg Monarchy passed through Sesto/Sexten on their retreat from the front. They stole cattle, hay and potatoes, looted houses and burned down field fences. The presence of Italian Carabinieri instead of the Austrian gendarmes also took some getting used to for the people of Sesto/Sexten.
The following statements are taken from interviews with inhabitants of Sesto/Sexten conducted as part of the project.

Paula Egarter: “The return took place in 1918, but that was very bad. The whole farm was plundered. The soldiers even removed the paneling from the walls to make fires. Everything that was somehow useful for the positions at the front had been taken.”1Interview with Susanne Elsen and Alexandra Budabin, 16.7.2021, Sesto.

Georg (Jörg) Lanzinger: “In 1917 the war on the Dolomite front was over. And at Christmas 1917 Grandma wanted to return. But this was not allowed. She then made representations to the community leader. Then she was told: “Yes, Kathl, how do you imagine that? There’s no chance of returning in winter.” She was almost laughed at. But my grandmother was courageous and wrote to the fortress command. In fact, she then received permission: her letter request of 20.1.1918 was granted, on the condition that she would leave the block immediately if necessary.”2Interview with Thomas Benedikter, 8.7.2021, Sesto.

Rudolf Holzer: “On the one hand, about 40 houses had been destroyed, on the other hand, everything had been plundered, the floors had been torn out, herds carried to the positions at the front, copper kettles had been taken away. I don’t know if the military has ever paid compensation for this. As early as 1916, the mayor issued a memorandum on the subject. Why did the soldiers loot? This was tolerated, houses were empty, and the soldiers helped themselves. ‘My grandfather was a soldier in Sesto/Sexten,’ a descendant of a soldier from Tyrol once told me, ‘and he saved documents there.’ The military needed wood for the shelters, tore the floors out of the courtyards, took the paneling and many utensils. A lot of wood was also felled in the forests, especially to burn charcoal. The priest wrote at the time: ‘I do not know who caused the greater damage: the Italians by the shelling or the Austrians by the looting.’ One must remember that all of Sesto/Sexten was evacuated for two and a half years. Initially, the military wanted to transport the people of Sesto/Sexten to Katzenau in Upper Austria. The people of Sesto/Sexten rejected that.”3Interview with Thomas Benedikter, 29.4.2021, Sesto.

(TB)