Cinque Torri

The Cinque Torri, the five towers, are a striking rock group near Cortina d'Ampezzo and a popular climbing area. Around the rocks stretches an open-air museum of the First World War with restored trenches and positions. A chairlift and easy paths make the area readily accessible.

Highlights

• Striking rock group for climbing
• Open-air museum of the First World War
• Easily reached by chairlift
• View of the Tofane and Averau

Good to know

Practical info

Background & History

The Cinque Torri, the “five towers”, are a striking group of free-standing rock towers in the Dolomites west of Cortina d’Ampezzo. They are not actual mountains, but vast rock blocks that have detached themselves from the surrounding slope over the course of earth history and now rise like an ensemble of steep towers above the high plateau. Formed from the deposits of a primeval sea, they belong to the UNESCO World Heritage of the Dolomites and are a popular destination for climbers, who have drawn their routes through the walls here since the early days of sport rock climbing.

The Cinque Torri gained a special historical significance in the First World War, when the front between Italy and Austria-Hungary ran right through this mountain world. The Italian troops erected between the rock towers a widely branching system of positions, trenches and gun emplacements, from which they fired on the opposing Austrian lines on the Lagazuoi. Today this open-air museum of carefully reconstructed trenches and shelters can be walked, making the suffering and the harshness of the mountain war strikingly tangible. So the Cinque Torri combine spectacular rock formations with a quiet, admonishing testimony of European history that makes the visitor reflective in the midst of the magnificent mountain backdrop.