Fort Belvedere
Fort Belvedere is an Austro-Hungarian WW1 fort built in the early 1900s and has been amazingly well-preserved to this day. The fort overlooks the valley that, at the time, marked the frontier between the Italian domain and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The cold and moist atmosphere, along with the various noises and exhibits gave us a truly immersive experience.
Defenders of the Fort
These cannons were used to guard the various routes through the valley below. The cannon domes today are restorations of the originals used during WW1, although they are close replicas.
A Soldiers’ Best Friends
Here is a glimpse of the tools and weaponry used by the soldiers. The unreliability of rifles meant that battles often became bloody and intimate, as attackers would turn to their sidearms, knives, shovels, and rifle butts to overcome enemy defenses.
The Kitchen
Although the fort did have a chef and doctor on duty, they could not afford to adequately provide all the soldiers with their daily needs. The lack of adequate provisions made longer assaults especially difficult.
A Maze of Tunnels
From just the short time we spent traversing the fort, we could imagine the claustrophobia experienced by the soldiers occupying these tunnels for months on end.
“There may be no light at the end of the tunnel, but there’s certainly enough air, enough oxygen for you to keep going. And you must keep going because that is your duty.”
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