Pordoi German military cemetery, War cemetery at Passo Pordoi, Italy.
Pordoi German military cemetery stands above the Pordoi Pass on the Great Dolomites Road at 2,239 m. An octagonal crypt, lit by three narrow slits in each wall and holding a shell-limestone bowl at its centre, contains 8,582 Austro-Hungarian and German dead of World War I. A five-metre circular wall 30 m across surrounds it; in the earth ring of an outer wall 54 m across lie 849 World War II dead.
The cemetery resulted directly from the 1937 war graves agreement between the German Reich and the Kingdom of Italy. Construction began that same year but was halted unfinished when World War II broke out in 1939. Work resumed in 1956, and the site was inaugurated on 19 September 1959.
The site is a German war cemetery, and its name appears in both German and Italian: Deutsche Kriegsgräberstätte Pordoi and Cimitero militare tedesco del Passo Pordoi. A museum on the nearby Pordoi Pass displays uniforms, weapons and everyday objects, along with photographs of the hardships soldiers faced in mountain warfare.
The site sits at high elevation, so appropriate clothing and footwear for changing mountain weather conditions are essential. Access is on foot, and the location is reachable throughout the year.
The crypt is an octagonal building lit by three narrow slits in each wall, with a shell-shaped bowl of Muschelkalk limestone at its centre. Around it runs a five-metre-high circular wall 30 metres across; a second outer wall, 54 metres in diameter, encloses an 8.5-metre-wide earth ring holding the 849 dead of the Second World War.
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