Livinallongo del Col di Lana War Memorial & Trenches
Just 3 km from Arabba's centre, the Col di Lana ridge was one of the most bitterly contested battlegrounds of the First World War — Italian and Austro-Hungarian troops fought here for two years, and in 1916 the Italians detonated a massive mine that blew off the summit. The preserved trenches, tunnels and the small ossuary chapel make this one of the most moving and least-visited war sites in the
The Trenches and the Mine Crater
A signed trail (about 1.5 hours return from the Col di Lana car park) leads through restored Austrian and Italian trench systems still cut into the dolomite rock. Interpretive panels in Italian, German and English explain the tactical situation; rusted iron stakes and barbed wire fragments remain exactly where soldiers left them over a century ago.
The summit crater left by the 1916 explosion is now a grass-filled bowl roughly 30 m across — eerie in its quietness, surrounded by a simple iron cross and a handful of memorial plaques placed by descendants of soldiers from both sides.
The Ossuary and Local Context
At the base of the hill in Livinallongo village, the small Sacrario Militare (military ossuary) holds the remains of over 2,000 soldiers. It is always open and free to enter; the silence inside is absolute.
The Museo della Grande Guerra in nearby Pieve di Livinallongo provides essential context — maps, uniforms, weapons and personal diaries that turn the abstract history into individual human stories. Allow an hour here before hiking the ridge.
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