Lagazuòi Piccolo
Peak · 2778 m · Dolomites
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Lagazuòi Piccolo, at 2,778 metres, is the lower of Mount Lagazuoi's two summits, reached from Passo Falzarego by a cable car that climbs in three minutes. Italian and Austro-Hungarian troops fought here between 1915 and 1917 and dug tunnel networks straight through the peak; restored sections now let hikers climb the mountain from inside. The summit looks out over the Tofane and the Marmolada glacier.
Walking down from the summit usually means walking through it: a via ferrata threads nearly a kilometre of tunnel that Italian troops cut into the rock. The soldiers dug up from the Cengia Martini, a ledge held by Italy below the summit, working toward the Anticima to get above the Austro-Hungarian troops occupying the peak above them. Fighting here became mine warfare: both armies tunnelled under each other's positions until the mountain had been rebuilt as a fortress of galleries, sheltering troops and guns underground. The Alpini and former Austrian and German soldiers later restored the network together, turning the battlefield into the open-air museum hikers now walk through.
What you see
A wooden cross marks the true summit, and the slopes below are still scarred with First World War trenches, gun emplacements and the dark mouths of mine tunnels blasted into the rock.
Practical
The cable car and tunnel museum run seasonally, roughly May to October; gloves, a headlamp and a helmet are recommended for the dark, narrow stretches inside the mountain.
world war onevia ferratamountain panoramaopen air museum