The Dolomites Railway (German : Dolomitenbahn, Italian : Ferrovia delle Dolomiti), originally the Ampezzaner Bahn or Ampezzaner Railway, [1] was a railway in Northern Italy crossing the Dolomites mountains. The 64.9-kilometre (40.3-mile) long railway began in Calalzo and ended in Toblach. Its gauge was 950 mm — "Italian metre gauge". The Cortina d'Ampezzo - Toblach part was closed in 1962 and the Cortina d'Ampezzo - Calalzo di Cadore in 1964. Two EMUs went to the Trento - Malè railway and are still in use. Other vehicles went to the Ferrovie Appulo Lucane .
The line was begun in 1916 to supply the military needs of the White War, when Italy attempted to annex the Austrian province of South Tyrol. Both sides sought to construct railways to supply their troop operations among the peaks of the Dolomite range. On the Italian side a steam-operated 750mm narrow gauge line was extended northwards from Calalzo towards Cortina, [2] while in the north the Austrians built a 700mm gauge feldbahn track southwards (with motive power from small petrol locomotives) from a military supply depot at Höhlenstein. After the general Italian retreat of 1917 the whole route came under Austrian administration but the situation was reversed at the end of the war, when Italy was handed the former Austrian province. The Italian government then completed the line using money provided as reparation by the Austrian side, where possible using the route of the respective military railways. The ruling gradient was 3.5% (1 in 29) with a minimum curve radius of 60 metres (66 yards). Opening was on 15 June 1921. [1] Electrification was achieved in 1929 at 2700V DC, with a single sub-station at Cortina. [3]
In February 2016 the regional governments of The Veneto and Trentino-Alto Adige announced that they were to commission a feasibility study to build a new line between Calalzo, Cortina and Toblach but in May 2021 regional president Luca Zaia announced that a line following the original route, while still under consideration, was not the most favoured solution. [4] [5] [6] It is unlikely that the project will be completed in time for 2026, when the Winter Olympics will return to Cortina. [6]
The Dolomites, also known as the Dolomite Mountains, Dolomite Alps or Dolomitic Alps, are a mountain range located in northeastern Italy. They form part of the Southern Limestone Alps and extend from the River Adige in the west to the Piave Valley in the east. The northern and southern borders are defined by the Puster Valley and the Sugana Valley. The Dolomites are located in the regions of Veneto, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol and Friuli Venezia Giulia, covering an area shared between the provinces of Belluno, Vicenza, Verona, Trentino, South Tyrol, Udine and Pordenone.
Cortina d'Ampezzo is a town and comune in the heart of the southern (Dolomitic) Alps in the Province of Belluno, in the Veneto region of Northern Italy. Situated on the Boite river, in an alpine valley, it is a summer and winter sport resort known for its skiing trails, scenery, accommodation, shops and après-ski scene, and for its jet set and Italian aristocratic crowd.
The Province of Belluno is a province in the Veneto region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Belluno.
Alta Via 1 is a 150-kilometre-long high-level public footpath which runs through the eastern Dolomites in Italy. It is also known as the Dolomite High Route 1. It passes through some of the finest scenery in the Dolomites. The path runs south from Pragser Wildsee, near Toblach, to Belluno. Prags can be accessed by bus, and Belluno has both train and bus services.
Calalzo di Cadore is a municipality of 2,400 inhabitants of the province of Belluno, in the Italian region of Veneto. The name Calalzo derives from the Latin altus callis, meaning "high place." The geographical name "di Cadore" was added by Presidential Decree on 30 June 1959.
Cimon della Pala, sometimes called Cimone and The Matterhorn of the Dolomites, is the best-known peak of the Pale di San Martino group, in the Dolomites, northern Italy. Although it is not the highest peak of the group, the Cima Vezzana being a few metres higher, its slender point, which can be seen from the Rolle Pass, dominates the landscape.
Cristallo is a mountain massif in the Italian Dolomites, northeast of Cortina d'Ampezzo, in the province of Belluno, Veneto, northern Italy. It is a long, indented ridge with four summits higher than 3,000 metres. The mountain range is part of the "Natural Park of the Ampezzo Dolomites".
The Sentiero Ferrato Ivano Dibona is a challenging high alpine route along the Zurlon ridge, the main crest on Cristallo, a mountain group in the Italian Dolomites, northeast of Cortina d'Ampezzo, in the province of Belluno, Veneto, Italy. The use of a via ferrata set is recommended. The via ferrata is very well known because of the dolomitic scenery and the panoramic view.
A Heeresfeldbahn is a German or Austrian military field railway. They were field railways (Feldbahnen) designed for the military transportation purposes.
The Brenner Railway is a major line connecting the Austrian and Italian railways from Innsbruck to Verona, climbing up the Wipptal, passing over the Brenner Pass, descending down the Eisacktal to Bolzano/Bozen, then further down the Adige Valley to Rovereto/Rofreit, and along the section of the Adige Valley, called in Italian the “Vallagarina”, to Verona. This railway line is part of the Line 1 of Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T). It is considered a "fundamental" line by the state railways Ferrovie dello Stato (FS).
Cinque Torri comprise a small rock formation belonging to Nuvolao group in the Dolomiti Ampezzane north-west of San Vito di Cadore and south-west of Cortina d'Ampezzo.
Mount Faloria is a mountain in the Alps of northern Italy, located in the Dolomites near Cortina d'Ampezzo. It has an altitude of 2,123 metres (6,965 ft) and lies in close proximity to Sorapiss. It hosted the men's giant slalom event of the 1956 Winter Olympics, won by Toni Sailer of Austria, the first of three wins in his gold medal sweep. There is a mountain refuge at the summit, Rifugio Faloria.
Angelo Dibona was an Austro-Hungarian and Italian mountaineer. He is remembered as one of the great pioneers of climbing in the Dolomites and is responsible for many first ascents throughout the Alps. The Aiguille Dibona in France, the Campanile Dibona and the Dibona-Kante on the Cima Grande di Lavaredo are named after him.
Tyrol is a historical region in the Alps—in Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary, from its formation in the 12th century until 1919. In 1919, following World War I and dissolution of Austria-Hungary, it was divided into two modern administrative parts through the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye:
The Dolomites Gold Cup Race was a car race on public roads open to traffic, which was run in the Dolomite Mountains of northern Italy for ten years from 1947 to 1956. It took place along an anti-clockwise circuit that was 304 km long and usually took about 3 to 4 hours to complete the one lap that made up the race distance, with the start and finish in the town of Cortina d'Ampezzo. The circuit went through many Italian towns, and it had nearly 2,000 meters of elevation change- more than 6 1/2 times that of the Nürburgring and the Isle of Man TT track.
Karl Felix Wolff was a journalist, poet, author and self-taught folklorist of the South Tyrol who collected and published Ladinian legends.
Tre Sassi fort is a fortress and museum on the road to the Passo di Valparola, within the comune of Cortina d'Ampezzo in the southern (Dolomitic) Alps of the Veneto region of Northern Italy. Hidden between the Ampezzo valley and the high Val Badia, it was built by Austrians between 1897 and 1901 as a fortification against attack from the Italians on the Falzàrego and Valparo. During World War I it was a favorite target for the Italians, and the fort was destroyed as there was inadequate artillery to defend it.
Rinaldo Zardini Palaeontology Museum is a palaeontological museum in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. It is one of three museums administered by Le Regole d'Ampezzo, the other two being the Mario Rimoldi Modern Art Museum and the Regole of Ampezzo Ethnographic Museum. It is also a member of "DOMUS, the Network of Science Museums of the Veneto Dolomites". The paleontology museum opened in August 1975, exhibits Dolomite fossils. The museum bears the name of Rinaldo Zardini, a local researcher, who collected the materials and catalogued them. Thousands of his findings are part of the collections, though he collected over 1,000,000 articles in his lifetime.
Cadini di Misurina is a group of mountains in the eastern Dolomites in the Province of Belluno, Italy. These mountains rise to the west of Auronzo di Cadore, north-east of Cortina d'Ampezzo and south of Dobbiaco, in a position overlooking Lake Misurina. They are part of the Dolomites subsection of Sesto, of Braies, and of Ampezzo, and belong to the municipality of Auronzo di Cadore. The highest peak is the Cima Cadin of San Lucano.
The White War is the name given to the fighting in the high-altitude Alpine sector of the Italian front during the First World War, principally in the Dolomites, the Ortles-Cevedale Alps and the Adamello-Presanella Alps. More than two-thirds of this conflict zone lies at an altitude above 2,000m, rising to 3905m at Mount Ortler. In 1917 New York World correspondent E. Alexander Powell wrote: “On no front, not on the sun-scorched plains of Mesopotamia, nor in the frozen Mazurian marshes, nor in the blood-soaked mud of Flanders, does the fighting man lead so arduous an existence as up here on the roof of the world.”
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