The Austro-Hungarian Guards of Bovec Area

Easy | 5 hrs

Outdoor Museum Čelo
The main part of the Austro-Hungarian fortification consists of a 200-metre-long trench which connects two gun positions with a kitchen, an observation post, two dormitories for 40 men, and a shelter for 20 soldiers. The trench had 150 crenels for riflemen. The Austrians built the fortification between November 1914 and the spring of 1915. It played an important role in the defence of the valley in the Bovec area, since the two roads, to Kluže and to Trenta, could be shelled from it. Due to the constant shelling by the Italian artillery the fortification was damaged at several points.

World War I Military Cemetery at Log pod Mangartom
The cemetery is one of the best preserved World War I military cemeteries in Slovenia. In the centre of the cemetery stands a colossal monument, a work by Ladislav Kofránek of Prague, which was already erected during the war and dedicated to the defenders of Mt. Rombon. It features a pair of soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian Army, with their eyes fixed on the peak of Mt. Rombon, where the majority of those who are buried here were killed. A little more than 800 soldiers rest in the cemetery.

Štoln
The tunnel was constructed in 1905 in order to drain water from the lead and zinc mine at Cave del Predil/Rabelj/Raibl. Soon after it had been opened the miners from Log pod Mangartom began to use it as a short cut to their place of work. During World War I, Austrian soldiers placed beams above the running off water and fixed a narrow-gauge track on them. Strategically, the 4.8-kilometre-long tunnel was an extremely important transport vein which provided the safest transport of military equipment and soldiers to the front.

It is also possible to visit just one of the locations (Log pod Mangartom 1 hr, Čelo 2.5‒3 hrs)

Photos: (1‒5) Jure Batagelj, Fundacija Poti miru; (6) Matevž Lenarčič, Fundacija Poti miru; (7) David Štulc Zornik, Turizem Dolina Soče; (8) Tanja Gorjan, Fundacija Poti miru