esplora
The route is challenging due to the presence of several climbs, some of them steep. The section of the valley floor between Palchisce and Bonetti is partly unpaved and the first few hundred metres are slightly uneven. The route runs along the Isonzo Karst plateau, one of the symbolic places of the battles that took place on the Isonzo and Karst during the First World War. The area between the Doberdò and Comeno Karst is a vast Open Air Museum of the Great War on the Karst, where various itineraries and themed routes, accompanied by rich information panels, allow visitors to retrace the contention of these lands by the Italian and Austro-Hungarian armies.
Mount San Michele, theatre of the First, Second and Sixth Battles of the Isonzo, is today a monumental area scattered with trenches, communication trenches, caves and tunnels.
Near the village of San Michele del Carso (SE direction), a very suggestive area is the site of the trenches and fortifications of Mount Brestovec (Brestovi) crossed by the gunboat gallery. The site was recovered and enhanced in 2012 and is considered by many to be the most beautiful and important of its kind on the entire Eastern Front.
Another interesting site is the Case Neri cave (in the village of San Michele del Carso) used by the Austro-Hungarian army in the period 1915-1916 as a militia shelter.
In San Martino del Carso, the private museum 'Memories of the Great War' is worth a visit.
In Visintini in 1918, Hungarian soldiers erected a military chapel in memory of their fallen compatriots during the defence of the Doberdò Plateau.
Mount Skofnik (to the north of the village of San Michele del Carso), on the other hand, is one of the symbols of the Cold War. A large bunker was built under the summit in 1968. The site was decommissioned in 1992 but secured in 2015 by the Associazione Fanteria d'Arresto (Arrested Infantry Association), which takes care of guided tours by reservation.
In Doberdò del Lago, the 'Gradina' visitor centre is the landmark of the Doberdò and Pietrarossa regional lake reserve. With its museum part, it offers visitors the opportunity to learn about the main naturalistic, faunal, geomorphological and also historical features of the Karst. An easy path leads to the CAI Casa Cadorna refuge, from which there is a fantastic view of the basin of the intermittent Karst lake of Doberdò.
Karst 2014+ is the project created by the Province of Gorizia that aims to rediscover the Karst (from the Slovenian kras or krs meaning rock, stone) as a place where unique elements of the landscape and the historical memory linked to the sites that were the theatre of the First World War come together. A number of thematic routes aim to enhance history, memory and the surrounding environment and to promote cultural tourism that is aware of the historical events and the environmental and landscape resources of the area.
