Guided tour: Departure from San Martino del Carso to the historical route of Monte Brestovec

The guided tour begins in San Martino del Carso and will continue towards Mount Brestovec, where the roars of cannons once resounded. Between January and August 1917, the gun tunnel was excavated which, under the summit of this hill, housed eight mighty 149mm cannons, aimed at the Karst of Comeno. These guns, divided into four groups, provided wide and effective coverage. Today, what was once a strategic military work has been restored and opened to the public, allowing anyone to explore its structure and imagine its role during the Great War. However, what makes it even more extraordinary is the symbolic narrative that lies within, interweaving the stories of an Italian and an Austro-Hungarian soldier. As you walk through the various emplacements along the tunnel, you can admire several metal installations that tell the story of the construction of this gunboat and the experience of the war on the Karst. From the representation of the movements of the front lines at the moment of the assault, to the evocative “Dolina dei morti” with its crosses arranged in a quadrilateral, each installation offers a cross-section of history. The following posts are dedicated to illustrious testimonies, such as Kipling, d’Annunzio and Eugene of Habsburg, and to the bombings, highlighting the impact of the clashes on the territory. Finally, two spaces are dedicated to the reconstruction of a cannon with its firing directions and a series of mining wagons, symbols of the hard work required to build and maintain the gunboat. At the entrance, two inscriptions engraved on graffiti found on the Brestovec, “Peace” on the side of the Italian infantryman and “Let’s fly peace” on the side of the Austro-Hungarian infantryman, recall the desire for peace that overcame the divisions of the conflict