The Waldkapelle - Written in the landscape

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)

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)

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)

Heinrich Schwaighofer, parish priest in Sesto/Sexten, was an important confidant and central contact person for the people of Sesto/Sexten during those difficult times. After the destruction and the devastating fire in August 1915, Schwaighofer also had to leave the village. From Niederrasen, he took care supplying the refugees of Sesto/Sexten with the most necessary things and partly also led the collections of donations and help for the suffering population. In letters to the donors and benefactors from Vienna, which were printed in the “Neues Wiener Tagblatt”, Schwaighofer thanked them for their great willingness to help.
In exile, the priest also took over administrative tasks of the parish and became the most important contact person for the needs and sufferings of the refugees and evacuees. In a letter to Franz Happacher, the parish secretary of Sesto/Sexten, Schwaighofer reported at the beginning of 1917: “Otherwise everything here is the same, the refugees all healthy.”1Gemeindearchiv Sexten/Archivio comunale di Sesto, 1916/17, Mappe B, Heinrich Schwaighofer, Brief an die löbliche Gemeindevorstehung Sexten in Lienz.
When, at the end of June 1917, the first farmers of Sesto/Sexten were allowed to return to their homes, the parish priest was asked to resume his priestly functions. Since the parish church was badly damaged and still exposed to enemy fire, it was necessary to build a small emergency church in the remote locality of Holzerschlucht, in a position protected from grenades and shrapnel, to which the parish priest himself contributed. The boards for the construction were recovered from the remains of a nearby hay shed that had been destroyed by snow. Two years after the evacuation, on the first Sunday of August 1917, the first religious service took place in the Waldkapelle (wood chapel) in Sesto/Sexten. In a letter, Schwaighofer refers to the unusual interaction between church service and war events: “The whole building rightly deserves the name emergency church, and church service was an emergency, as need and misery are visible everywhere. Despite this, it was solemn, especially on the occasion of the first function, but also often in the following ones. There was no sound of bells on the occasion of the band, as would have been normal according to the old Tyrolean customs at the first service in a new church, but the explosion of bullets was not forgotten, that of the various friendly and enemy cannons, strong to such an extent that the echo bounced from the Haunold [Rocca dei Baranci] to the Rote Wand [Croda Rossa], from the Hornist-Egg [Hornischek/Monte Arnese] to the Drei Zinnen [Tre Cime]. It seems that military parades are also held nearby, because infantry and machine guns make noise and still make noise today at almost every service, only that, now habituated, you no longer notice them”.2Singer, Nach der Befreiung von Sexten. Der erste Gottesdienst in der Holzerschlucht.
For his services to the reconstruction of the parish church of Sesto, Father Schwaighofer was awarded honorary citizenship of Sesto/Sexten. The Waldkapelle was later renamed “Friedenskapelle” (Chapel of Peace) and since then has been a place of commemoration for the fallen and victims of all wars.

(SK)

Holzer, Rudolf (2002). Sexten. Vom Bergbauerndorf zur Tourismusgemeinde. Sesto/Sexten: Tappeiner Verlag.

Singer, Emanuel von (1918). Pustertaler Volk und Priester im Kriege, Neues Wiener Tagblatt, 30. Mai.

Gemeindearchiv Sexten, 1916/17, Mappe B, Heinrich Schwaighofer, Brief an die löbliche Gemeinde-Vorstehung Sexten in Lienz, 23. Jänner 1917.

Singer, Emanuel von (1918). Nach der Befreiung von Sexten. Der erste Gottesdienst in der Holzerschlucht, Neues Wiener Tagblatt, 24. März.

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