Austro-Hungarian Memorial Stones in the Cemetery of Pontafel

The municipality of Pontebba, in the heart of the Julian Alps, is today one of the most significant centres in this mountain area.

Its history is also very distinctive: the Rio Pontebbana, which bisects the town, represented the border between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Kingdom of Italy until the outbreak of the Great War. There were therefore two separate realities, Pontebba, administered by the House of Savoy, and Pontafel, under Habsburg control, united only after the signing of the peace treaties and the shift of the border beyond the town of Tarvisio.

In the cemetery of Sant’Antonio it is possible to discover several graves of Austro-Hungarian soldiers who fell during the battles and clashes that took place in the area, especially in the summer of 1915. The bodies were moved here from small cemeteries in the surrounding mountains. They are marked by 21 concrete plaques with metal inscription plates, laid on the ground and aligned along the eastern wall of the cemetery. Some of them commemorate the remains of soldiers whose identities are unknown.