To better understand the eleven Italian offensives of World War One on the lower Isonzo River, two highpoints should be among your tour stops – Monte San Michele (for the first six offensives) and Cerje (for the rest).  Atop the tower built on Cerje, one has a view over most of the Isonzo battlefields from Sabotin-Monte Santo to the final Austrian lines atop Monte Ermada.  The vastness of the Carso-Kras region lays out at your fingertips.  The Adriatic Sea glints in the distance to the southeast while the snowcapped Julians shine to the north.

THE TOWER

The tower dates to 2013.  The seven-story 25-meter- tall stone tower, the Monument of Peace, is located on the peak of Cerje, 343 meters high on the Ċrni hribi ridgeline forming the southern wall of the Vipava Valley.  Built to commemorate peace and all defenders of the Slovene homeland, it sits as a counterpoint to the Fascist-era Italian ossuary a few miles to the west at Redipuglia.  Slovene history reveals within the seven stories you walk up to the observation deck high above.  More recently, the tower has been tied into the Pot miru – Walk of Peace.  This path – better described as pathways – takes one along the former battlefields of World War One along the Isonzo-Soĉa River where Italy and Austria-Hungary bled each other white for over two years – 1915-1917.

Recent fires have blackened much of the vegetation on parts of the Kras, especially around the tower. Reforestation is an ongoing feature in the days of climate change. The only “good” thing about the fires, one gets a better idea of the battlefield of WW1 – the vegetation mostly burnt off by the actions of the war then as now.

SLOVENE HISTORY DISPLAYED

In keeping with the Pot miru, several exhibits relate various Austro-Hungarian military units in which Slovenes played significant roles.  There are also exhibits describing the military actions succeeding the war between Slovenes and Austro-Germans fighting on the Carinthian border to the north of present-day Slovenia.  Other exhibits deal with the between the wars and TIGR (Trst, Istra, Gorica, Reka – areas of Slovenia occupied after WW1 by Italy) anti-fascist movement – from whom the initiative for the monument began – along with difficulties faced by the local population during and after both World Wars.

THE DANCE OF DEATH

Close to the entrance is a large painting by Slovene artist Rudi Španzel called The Dance of Death.  His works combining realism with symbolism featured on Slovenia’s former currency the tolar. The Dance warns of the horror, suffering and irrationality of war. Darkness displays war’s horror on the left while the painting becomes lighter to the right and above symbolizing peace and freedom.  Two swords lie on the ground – one, whole, is Austrian signifying victory while the other is broken, an Italian sword – defeat.  Two grenades appear: one on the right a war grenade representing death and a pomegranate and life. 

Fish and grouse show the geographic dimensions of the Isonzo Front running from the alps where the grouse was shot and the fish of the Adriatic which also were blown out of the water during battles.  A horse’s head is for the two million horses needed to conduct the battles; the head color, white, represents Lipica and the Kras.  Stones were ever present on the battlefield, killing and maiming men as much as bullets.  There is a Russian trumpet like the ones brought home from the Eastern Front. 

Hats represent those who fought – Slovene cap, Italian helmet, Alpini hat, Slovene hat with a grouse feather, Austrian helmet and red fez of the Bosnians.  The life preserver is there representing those men in the navy.  A woman represents fertility, the continuance of Slovenia.  With her back turned away from the war, she looks towards a bright future.

MEN OF THE DANCE

Six men show pictured on the far right:  Svetozar Borojević von Bojna, the Austrian commander on the Isonzo;

Luigi Cadorna, the Italian commander;

Arpad Bertalan, a Bosnian jäger battalion commander who with 15 men broke through two Italian lines capturing 1,000 Italians receiving the Knight’s Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa and the Golden Bravery Medal for officers;

a soldier;

a grandfather symbolizing entrepreneurism and the grandfather of Španzel who fought on the Isonzo.

1. SVETOVNA VOJNA

The history of World War One is described using local photographs, maps, and a few cartoons from those times.  The exhibits are in Slovene and English – some add Italian and German explanations – so as you go up the tower each floor brings new revelations.  Frontline and rear areas, military actions, and effects of the war on civilian populations, all explained through the photographs and exhibits. 

1918-1919 operations between Slovene and Austrians over lands in southern Carinthia are only explained in Slovene, so you are on your own here.

VIEWS FROM ATOP

But finally, you are here for the fantastic views the tower affords you.  There is a little café at the north base of the tower where you can also enjoy those views over something to eat or drink.  Huge fires sweep across the Carso regularly with the dryness and heat of summer.  2019 and 2022 saw significant fire damage in the region.  The fires expose the white limestone ground which from afar looks like snow.

From atop the tower, you look through windows in all four directions.  Windows because of what seems like constant wind blowing over the crestline.  To the east, trenches are still obvious crawling this way and that through the limestone.  Italian offensives finally ebbed out on the taller second peak just east from here at Fajtji hrib, another 100 meters higher than Cerje.  There were plenty of other peaks along the long ridge for the Austrians to retreat to if Fajtji fell.  The Vipava valley extends past the ridgeline, seemingly the open door for the Italian army to push on to Ljubljana.

SOUTH-SOUTHEAST

To the south, the eastern plateau of the Carso extends far to the south and Monte Ermada.  Vegetation covers the thousands of sinkholes in the limestone countryside from which the Italians and Austro-Hungarians fought each other from, one hole at a time.

The church tower of Sveti Peter in Temnica is to the southeast lying just south of the Ċrni hribi ridgeline.  A little to the right Sveti Martin in Kostanjevica na Krasu stands.  This represented the beginning of the Austrian rear area, as well as another far point almost reached by Italian arms.  An interesting supply rail line featured in this area, devised by none other than Ferdinand Porsche.  The train needed loops in the tracks because the trains lacked reverse gears and could only move forward.  An Italian ossuary became created in the little village next to the church – the whole of Istria given to Italy after the war.  That ossuary is no more, the dead reburied to the massive Redipuglia to the west.

Looking south, the village of Sela na Krasu can be made out with the looming peaks of Monte Ermada beyond.  To the left of Ermada, the Gulf of Trieste, visible seen with ships waiting their turn at the docks in Trieste.  Trees and white limestone rocks of the Kras dominate the foreground.  To the right of the hills, the Adriatic opens.   A couple of cranes and a large smokestack pop up from the Monfalcone industrial area.  Further right, Opatje selo sprawls with the spire of Sveti Andrej rising above.

WEST

West from Cerje, the two halves of the Kras are obvious with the deep incision of the Vallone valley bisecting the plateau into an east and west side.  The Friulian plains of Italy lie beyond with the Trieste airport just in view.  The little summits of Mounte San Michele are directly west.  Little villages high in the western Carso like San Martino del Carso and San Michele del Carso are visible not far from the summit line.  Today’s border between Italy and Slovenia run just east of the Vallone along the eastern crest not far from the power lines visible running up from the Vipava Valley to the north.

NORTH-NORTHWEST

To the northwest and north, the Vipava valley leads to the twin cities of Gorizia and Nova Gorica.  Below to the left are the twin towers of the monastery atop the little hill of Mirenski grad.  Forested hills rising above the western extension of Gorizia are where the Austrians held off the Italian 2^nd Army for over a year before the lines were finally breached in the Sixth Isonzo campaign.  Thousands died and the large Italian ossuary at Oslavia stands out above the city on the northern end of the hill chain. 

Then the steep slopes of Sabotin where thousands more fought.  “Tito” stands out inscribed by white stones just beneath the summit.  Sabotin is another of Slovenia’s open-air museums dedicated to the harsh fighting that took place on the mountain.  Sabotin, Oslavia and Monte San Michele all fell to the Italians during the Sixth Isonzo in early August 1916.  There were over 51,000 Italian casualties from the twelve day battle while the Austrians suffered over 37,000 of their own.

The trench of the Isonzo separates Sabotin from the next Italian objective, Monte Santo-Sveta Gora.  The restored monastery stands out on the top of the 681-meter-high peak.  Here the Italians would capture this peak during the Tenth Isonzo at the cost of many thousands more casualties.  They reached to little pass just to the right of the peak before ebbing against the Austrian lines on Škabrijel – Monte Gabriele.  The front lines ran across the Vipava Valley directly below in front of Cerje, but along the Isonzo, the fighting always seemed focused on the high ground.

WORLD OF LIMESTONE

All in all, the tower at Cerje provides a grand overview of all of the main battlefields of the lower Isonzo.  The natural magnificence of the Carso-Kras-Karst is on view, as well, with the towering peaks of the Julian Alps to the north, the Friulian plains to the west, the vast Adriatic to the south and the sea of Dalmatia summits extending far to the southeast.  A truly amazing viewpoint.