In the Montello area, you can freely visit the King’s observatory, the place from which King Vittorio Emanuele III watched the battle of Vittorio Veneto (from October 27 to 29, 1918), the last fighting of the First World War. It is a bunker built under a rural house in 1917: It consists of a narrow passageway that connects to two small rooms from which you could follow the entire field of action of the XXII Army and control the course of the river Piave.
The battle was actually supposed to take place on 24th October, Caporetto’s anniversary, but the Piave was in “soft” mode, a particular situation that prevented the passage of the troops. On 27 October, under a thundering storm, two bridges were built in the Piave, one in this area and one in Pederobba. On 30 October the Austrian army began to fall apart, so the Italians reached Vittorio Veneto, where they won the war.
A few metres from the observatory, you can also find the Roman Column, placed on the Montello by Mussolini’s regime in 1932. It consists of an original column from the Roman imperial era, set on a fascist monument designed by architect Fausto Scudo. The column, being a relic of imperial Rome, wanted to create a link between the Eternal City and the fascist period in progress, as well as exploiting Italy’s victory in the First World War, to promote its own imperialist and warmongering policy.
© Marcadoc editorial team | 02/08/2024
