Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
TheattackcaughttheItalianforcesoff-guard,quicklybreakingthroughthreelines
of defense. Within three days, the Italians were forced to retreat. (Because the Italian
military worked from the top down, the soldiers were sitting ducks once they were
cut off from their commanders.) The Austrians called their victory the “Miracle at
Kobarid.” But Italy felt differently. The Italians see the battle of Caporetto (the Itali-
an name for Kobarid) as their Alamo. To this day, when an Italian finds himself in a
mess, he might say, “At least it's not a
Caporetto.
”
A year later, Italy came back—this time with the aid of British, French, and US
forces—and easily retook this area. On November 4, 1918, Austria-Hungary con-
ceded defeat. After more than a million casualties, the fighting at So
č
a was finally
over.
If the
church
is open, go inside and look above the door to see a brave soldier standing
over the body of a fallen comrade, fending off enemies with nothing but rocks.
When Mussolini came to dedicate the mausoleum, local revolutionaries plotted an as-
sassination attempt that they believed couldn't fail. A young man planned to suicide-bomb
Mussolini as the leader came back into town from this hilltop. But as Mussolini's car drove
past, the would-be assassin looked at his fellow townspeople around him, realized the inno-
cent blood he would also spill, and had a last-minute change of heart. Mussolini's trip was
uneventful, and fascism continued to thrive in Italy.
▲
Walk of Peace (Pot Miru)
Thiswalkingroute—which,asofa2012expansion,extendsmorethan140milesfromthese
mountains all the way to the Adriatic—is designed to link museums, cemeteries, churches,
and other sites related to the warfare of the So
č
a Front. But it also has a secondary purpose
of celebrating and introducing visitors to all aspects of regional culture and natural sites. In
addition to the excellent museum here in Kobarid, several other “outdoor museums” in the
area let you get close to the places where the fighting actually occurred. Some are reachable
by car, while others require a challenging mountain hike.
To learn more about all of these options, visit the
Walk of Peace Foundation Visitors
Center,
across the street from the Kobarid Museum. They hand out good, free maps and
booklets about these sites, and sell a fine €10 guidebook to WWI sights in the area. Tour
their engaging, state-of-the-art exhibition. To commemorate the centennial of the fighting
here (2015-2017), they plan to host a range of rotating exhibits about the war (free, July-
Aug Mon-Fri 9:00-13:00 & 14:00-19:00, Sat-Sun 10:00-13:00 & 14:00-19:00, April-June
andSept-Octslightlyshorterhours,closedNov-March—butyoucantryknockingonweek-
