Monte Corno Battisti, Mountain summit in Vallarsa, Italy.
Monte Corno Battisti is a summit of the Pasubio massif in the Vicentine Prealps, standing at 1,778 metres and rising above the Vallarsa valley; administratively it lies in Trentino. It is a rough, prominent peak in the surrounding landscape, of little importance for climbing but of great historical weight, and its rock is cut by a network of tunnels from World War I.
During World War I, the summit changed hands several times between Italian and Austro-Hungarian forces between 1916 and 1918. Both sides dug deep into the rock, leaving behind a system of tunnels and mine shafts that still runs through the mountain today.
The mountain was called Monte Corno di Vallarsa until World War I; after the fighting it was renamed Monte Corno Battisti, after Cesare Battisti, who was captured here with Fabio Filzi in 1916. A plaque on the Strada degli Eroi lists four of the twelve gold medals for military valour awarded to Pasubio combatants for actions on this peak between 1916 and 1918.
The marked route to the summit is the via ferrata Franco Galli, inaugurated on 23 August 1987, which climbs from the Valmorbia hamlet in Vallarsa and includes passages through tunnels. It calls for via ferrata equipment and mountain experience. The older tunnel system, rediscovered by Vicentine climbers on 18 August 1985, is more dangerous and prone to collapse than the Denti system; a headlamp is needed there.
Beneath the summit lies a vertical shaft called Lowenmaul, blasted by Austro-Hungarian soldiers to reach a position deeper inside the rock. This shaft was not a passage for movement but a military tool designed to undermine the peak from within.
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