![]() Countless residents never returned, and for the thousands of soldiers who were transported to the region and died there, few records or traces of them remain. Despite the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s efforts to refurbish the old mountain pass defensives and fortify the jagged mountains that flanked its side of the river, the Allies eventually won WWI, causing the land that is now modern-day Slovenia to be annexed to Italy under the 1920 Treaty of Rapallo.ĭuring the Battles of the Isonzo, many of the Soča Valley’s 300,000 residents were displaced to central Austria-Hungary to avoid the crossfire of the front line, while others were forced to relinquish their homes for soldiers’ barracks. A total of 12 major battles were fought there between 19, with the Italian side launching 11 of the 12 offensives. "With the Julian Alps on one side of us, the Mediterranean Sea nearby, the Bovec Basin and the deep canyons and rivers together, the weather can change quite suddenly – and with adverse conditions.”ĭuring WWI, the Soča river (known in Italian as the Isonzo river) ran north-south along what was then the border of Austria and Italy, opening a new 600km front when Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary on 23 May, 1915. "The Soča Valley – and the Bovec area in particular – is unique because of its microclimate," said my Soča Rafting guide Jure Črnič. Related article: Epicurean Slovenia makes its mark.Approximately 1.7 million soldiers died or were mutilated for life fighting on the Isonzo Front, many losing their lives attempting to navigate the steep mountain slopes, fight through whiteout blizzards or traverse unsurpassable canyons. What’s even more difficult to imagine is that the valley was once part of the Isonzo Front, one of the bloodiest frontlines in WWI. ![]() The vineyards were thin and bare-branched too and all the country wet and brown and dead with autumn.” ![]() “There was fighting for that mountain too, but it was not successful, and in the fall when the rains came the leaves all fell from the chestnut trees and the branches were bare and the trunks black with rain. Looking at Slovenia’s Soča Valley today, with its aquamarine river rapids, waterfalls gently tumbling down steep cliffs and dense, overgrown emerald forests, I had a hard time imagining that the area once resembled the barren and grey Soča Valley of Ernest Hemingway's novel, A Farewell to Arms:
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