INFANTRY REGIMENT 97 – DIFFERENT HISTORIES IN THE REDEEMED LANDS

Men of Infantry Regiment 97 leaving from the Trieste train station for the Galician front.

Stuck away on the east side of multiple train tracks at the train station in Trieste is a small monument.  It stands forlornly nest to a like sized monument dedicated to rail workers who died in World War 2.  The monument in question reads: “In riccordo di cittadini del littoral Austriaco partiti da questi binary nell’agosta del 1914 per lontani cmapi di battaglia” – “In memory of citizens of the Austrian Littoral who left from these tracks in August 1914 for battlefields far away.”  The sign is fixed on a large stone on which also is placed, a cap design for the Imperial and Royal – Kaiserliche und Königliche (K. und K.) – Infantry Regiment 97.  The K. und K. Infantrie Regiment 97 entrained from here to the battlefields of Galicia from which many of the men, locals from Trieste and the surrounding region, would never return.

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LONG-DISTANCE PATHS RECOUNT THE GREAT WAR HIGH IN THE ALPS

Unknown Austro-Hungarian grave in one of the countless sinkholes - dolinas - of the Carso found along the Pot miru - Path of Peace.
Unknown Austro-Hungarian grave in one of the countless sinkholes – dolinas – of the Carso found along the Pot miru – Path of Peace – one of Europe’s long-distance paths.

Long-distance paths have acquired quite a following in the past few decades.  In the US you have ways like the Appalachian Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail and the Continental Divide Trail standing as the Big Three.  There are plenty of other long-distance paths to spend days upon days on, as well, such as the Arizona Trail, the Green Mountain Trail, and on and on.  Of course, the American examples pale in number when compared to the Old World.

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MONTE SAN MICHELE ZONA MONUMENTAL – MEMORIES OF THE LONG YEAR

Flagpole atop Monte San Michele remembers the Italian brigades who fought here as well as the Unknown Soldier in Rome whom was one of the Fallen from the battles here.
Flagpole atop Monte San Michele remembers the Italian brigades who fought here as well as the Unknown Soldier in Rome whom was one of the Fallen from the battles here.

Monte San Michele.  Welcome to one of the battlefields upon where so many Italians, as well as their opponents from Austria-Hungary, spilled blood during the 1915 to 1916. These campaigns fought in the harsh limestone hills just east off the Isonzo River.  The extreme efforts of that long year and three months remembered by King Vittorio Emanuele III’s proclamation in 1922 of the hill’s inclusion as a zona sacra, a place of special memory to the Italian nation.  At least three zone sacra in Italy relate to World War 1 – Pasubio and Monte Grappa are the other two.  There might be more but those along with Monte San Michele are the big three.

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