WAR SITES
Stones speak
WAR SITES
Epigraphy of the Great War
Plaques, tablets, graffiti, carvings, inscriptions and memorial stones are indelible signs left by the soldiers during the war, bearing witness to their presence and participation in this tragic event in history.
These stones are a historical and cultural asset because they represent the authenticity and harshness of the memories that they guard. They are fundamentally important testimony because they have the intrinsic capacity to identify places and categorise people, they have been created and set at a well determined and familiar spot and can constitute, confirm or belie documentary sources.


They reveal names, units, mottoes, desires and dates; they are epitaphs and celebratory epigraphs, decorative elements and designations. References to various army units are often found, such as Alpine troops, infantry, Bersaglieri, artillery, engineers, etc. Each has its purpose and they are written in various languages according to the army.
Along the Alta Via high altitude Great War hiking trail, you may come across some of these stones, carvings, etc., which retain the power to charge our emotions intensely and are potent human memorials of what happened on the Vicenza mountains, passing down the state of mind and the identity of the persons that created them.
“Che t’importa
il mio nome?
Grida al vento
fante d’Italia
e dormirò contento”