Description of the attraction
Mount Marmolada, located in northeastern Italy, 100 km from Venice, is the highest peak in the Dolomites. In clear weather it can even be seen from the “city on the water”. In the west, the mountain drops abruptly and forms a vertical wall several kilometers long, and in the north it is covered with a relatively gentle glacier. I must say that Marmolada is the only mountain in the Dolomites with a glacier left on it.
From the north of Marmolada stretches the Sella mountain range, from the south - the Pale di San Martino ridge. And the mountain itself serves as a natural border between two Italian regions - Trentino-Alto Adige and Veneto.
The first person to conquer Marmolada in 1864 was the Austrian writer Paul Grochmann - he climbed the northern slope. And during the First World War, soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian army laid almost 8 km of tunnels in the Marmolada glacier in order to get to the Italian positions unnoticed and to avoid shelling. The fact is that in those years it was along the glacier that the border between Austria and Italy passed. The construction of the "ice city" took almost a year - from May 1916 to April 1917. Inside were equipped with bedrooms, dining rooms and warehouses for ammunition and equipment. But already in 1918 the unique "ice city" completely disappeared, primarily due to the movement of the glacier. Until now, as the glacier melts on Marmolada, the remains of the soldiers of the First World War and their belongings are discovered.
To be precise, Marmolada is not a lonely peak, but a whole ridge. The height of its peaks decreases from west to east: Punta Penia reaches a height of 3343 meters, Punta Rocca - 3309 meters, and Pizzo Serauta - already 3035 meters. By the way, there is a cable car to the top of Punta Rocca. At the height of the ski season, the main trail of Marmolada, which goes down to the valley itself, is open for both downhill skiing and snowboarding enthusiasts.
