Hotel & Spa Rosa Alpina - Dolomites during WWI

Between 1915-1919, San Cassiano played an important role during the First World War. It represented the last Austrian bastion before the front and therefore all provisioning for the Emperor’s troops had to pass through San Cassiano.
People fought till the end, in a trench war, for the front line traced on the mountains of the Valparola Pass. The „Alpenrose“ parish church - hotel, the only public place in the village, was in those years an important meeting point for soldiers and officers and also the centre for all social events.
In 1920, after the WWI the name „Alpenrose“ was replaced by the Italian „Rosa Alpina“. In the 30ies tourism increased a lot: some farmers enlarged their farms and built some more rooms for renting them to the guests.