Museum "The Carnia Area in the Great War 1915-1918"

The historical museum “Carnia Area in the Great War 1915–1918” is one of the best exhibitions on the Great War in Friuli Venezia Giulia and is an excellent way to complement visits to the open-air museums of Freikofel, Passo Cavallo, Pal Grande and Pal Piccolo.

Managed by the Amici delle Alpi Carniche association in collaboration with the Municipality of Paluzza, it is arranged in ten exhibition rooms plus service spaces for museum activities.

The rooms contain showcases and display cases, with exhibits linked to captions. Audioguides in Italian, German and English are available to help visitors appreciate and understand both the creation of the museum and the items on display.

The exhibition area covers 700 square metres over two floors. The first floor is entirely devoted to the Great War and includes a themed room on the epic story of the Carnic “portatrici” and the heroine Maria Plozner Mentil. Adjacent rooms display complete soldiers’ equipment, an extensive weapons collection and war collections, and a section dedicated to military medical organisation, with documents on surgical procedures, limb prostheses, operating-room equipment, a remarkable quantity of medicines and a stretcher for transporting the wounded.

Among the most valuable and interesting pieces are original photographs, including one of the father of the future Pope John Paul II (Karol Wojtyła), and an Austrian accordion captured on the front line by the Tolmezzo Alpini battalion on Pal Piccolo.

Going up the internal stairs, visitors reach the upper floor, where there is a room dedicated to the Second World War and to the story of the Cossacks in 1944–1945.

Finally, there is a small room dedicated to the culture of Timau-Tischlbong, one of the alloglot islands of our region where the ancient dialect of German origin known as Tischlbongarisch is still spoken. Beyond this is a reconstruction of a 1930s elementary school classroom, followed by the multimedia room where period films and productions by the association are shown and where conferences and presentations are held for visitors.