Kobarid Museum to Celebrate 90th Anniversary of Isonzo Front
The Museum of Kobarid plans to upgrade its famous exhibition on the Soca Front (Isonzo Front) this year to mark the 90th anniversary of the beginning of this bloody WWI battleground.
The valley of Soca (Isonzo) was the stage of 12 battles between Italians and the Austro-Hungarian empire between May 1915 and November 1917, in what was a battlefield of extraordinary proportions even for WWI.
The exact death toll has never been established. While talk used to be of over a million, historians now say that at least 300,000 soldiers died in three years of fighting.
The museum at Kobarid, a Slovenian town near the Italian border, put up the exhibition on the Soca Front fifteen years ago to attract numerous visitors since and win the European Museum of the Year award back in 1993.
Established in 1990 in a renovated house at the town's main square, the museum displays an amazing set of military equipment, a vast collection of photographs and personal belongings of soldiers fighting at the front.
For this year's anniversary, the museum has upgraded its multimedia equipment, acquired new archives and made a new documentary about the museum.
The town of Kobarid meanwhile plans to erect road signs informing tourists that they are entering the historical town of Kobarid, famous for the last battle of the Soca Front in the autumn of 1917.
As the town was called Karfreit when being part in the Austro-Hungarian empire, and named Caporetto once under the Italians, foreign tourists have hard time finding the place, the town officials have explained.
More articles from this issue:
Archive
|