Discover Fogliano Redipúglia

Fogliano Redipúglia combines key World War I memorial sites with a landscape where marked trails, trenches and military positions are an integral part of the local scenery. The Sacrario di Redipuglia is located on the western slope of Monte Sei Busi. Its monumental staircase consists of 22 steps and contains the remains of more than 39,800 identified fallen soldiers. The site is therefore particularly interesting for your travel plans if you would like to combine culture, memorial sites and historic landscapes.

Memorial sites and museums in Fogliano Redipúglia

Behind the 22nd step of the Sacrario di Redipuglia are two symmetrically arranged museum rooms. One is dedicated to the Gold Medals and the works of the painter Giuseppe Ciotti, while the other contains personal belongings and small mementos of the fallen. The Sacrario Militare and the Parco delle Rimembranze on Colle Sant’Elia are open permanently. In the park, you can see memorial works, Austro-Hungarian fortifications, trenches and tunnels, as well as 30 artillery pieces, many of which are considered rare.

The Cimitero Militare di Redipuglia “Invitti 3^ Armata” on Colle Sant’Elia was selected as the site for this cemetery. Around 30,000 war dead were buried there, 5,860 of whom had retained their identities. Memorial stones along the staircase and around the summit square, inscriptions and bronze replicas of military objects preserve the memory of the original design. Another independent memorial site is the Cimitero austro-ungarico di Fogliano Redipuglia, located one kilometre from the Sacrario di Redipuglia and containing the remains of 14,550 soldiers. Hungarian, Bosnian, Slavic and Romanian family names reveal the multi-ethnic dimension of the Habsburg Empire.

The Museo Multimediale della Grande Guerra has been housed in the former Fogliano Redipúglia railway station since 2014. At three touchscreen stations, it offers independent access to a collection of more than 1,200 photographs. In the Chiesa di Santa Elisabetta, you will find interior furnishings and decorations by the local painters Corrado Zimolo, Carlo Mauri and Giulio Justolin, as well as a wooden statue of the Madonna from the 14th century. The Chiesetta di Santa Maria in Monte was built in the centre of a Venetian military installation. Its garden is still surrounded by a star-shaped wall, partly preserved in its original form, which Commander Antonio Priuli had built during the Guerre Gradiscane between Venice and the Empire.

Karst landscape, trails and historic positions

The Museo all’aperto della Dolina del XV Bersaglieri is located on the battlefields of the Karst plateau of Monte Sei Busi between Fogliano Redipúglia and Ronchi dei Legionari. Marked trails lead to trenches, tunnels and military positions. You can reach the open-air museum by car after travelling approximately two and a half kilometres along the road from Redipuglia to Doberdò del Lago; from there, a footpath leads to Monte Sei Busi at 118 metres above sea level. From there, the view extends across the entire former Isonzo Front, from Monte Krn, also known as Nero, to the Gulf of Trieste, which is bordered by Monte Hermada.

The Trincea delle Frasche also shows how closely the natural environment and military history are connected in the Karst. It was one of the early and seemingly impregnable Austro-Hungarian defence systems dug into the hard rock of the Karst. The original sections have partly been filled in and are now only faintly visible amid the surrounding woodland vegetation. Around the summit of Monte Sei Busi, a section of the so-called Trincerone italiano, also known as Trincea Mazzoldi, can be seen. Near the Trincea delle Frasche, easy, marked trails lead to the memorial stone for Filippo Corridoni and the pyramid dedicated to the infantrymen of the Brigata Sassari.

Getting there and finding your way around

The Sacrario di Redipuglia can be reached by car via the Venice–Trieste motorway, the Redipuglia exit and then two kilometres in the direction of Fogliano Redipúglia. By train, you can reach the area via Redipuglia station on the Udine–Gorizia–Trieste line. Ronchi dei Legionari Airport is five kilometres away, while the port of Trieste is approximately 45 kilometres away. For historical context on site, you can also take year-round excursions offered by the Sentieri di Pace project, organised by guides specialising in the subject of World War I.

If you would like to compare other destinations at the same hierarchical level in addition to Fogliano Redipúglia, you can find Medea (Medea), Polazzo (Polazzo), Ronchi Dei Legionari (Ronchi Dei Legionari), Savogna D'isonzo (Savogna D'isonzo), San Pier d'Isonzo (San Pier d'Isonzo), Pieris (Pieris), Staranzano (Staranzano) and Marina Julia (Marina Julia).

To the higher-level travel overview: Gorizia.