Heroes’ Cemetery of Valbruna

During the Great War the Austro-Hungarians too suffered many losses among the peaks of the Julian Alps. Civil cemeteries in villages near the front were often used, but already in the summer of 1915 small temporary war cemeteries began to appear to receive the bodies of the fallen.

In 1916 the military commands decided to build, in correspondence with the second defensive line at the entrance to the Val Saisera, a new cemetery: the “Heroes’ Cemetery” (Heldenfriedhof in German).The beautiful wooden chapel immediately catches the eye. It was designed by Austrian lieutenant Grosschedel and built by the 59th Mountain Brigade. A significant phrase completes the structure: “They lie here, like seeds stifled by frost before seeing the comfort of spring. You who will reap in the golden light, full of the happiness of summer, do not forget them!”

The cemetery itself consists of two wings and a central sector where the graves of soldiers exhumed from nearby burial grounds are located. Initially marked by simple wooden crosses, from the 1930s onward these graves became identifiable thanks to concrete plaques. Also resting here are soldiers of the Carinthian Volunteer Schützen Regiment who repelled the Italian assault on Piccolo Miezegnot in July 1916, as well as Russian prisoners recruited to work in the rear areas.

Restored in 2002 by the Austrian Black Cross, the cemetery is managed by the local ANA section of Malborghetto, which on 2 November organises an international commemoration for all those who fell in the Great War.