Mount Sabotin, the hill of tunnels on the Isonzo Front

A bridgehead over the Soča

The Walk of Peace Foundation says that almost every stone on Sabotin could tell a story of Austro-Hungarian and Italian soldiers digging in. During the war the hill was drilled from every side and criss-crossed by galleries, trenches and caves. Thanks to its position above the Soča it was first an important Austro-Hungarian bridgehead on the right bank. In the Sixth Battle of the Isonzo, in August 1916, the Italian army took it, at the same time as Gorizia.

What to see in the Sabotin Park of Peace

What you visit today is an open-air museum of those galleries and trenches, a museum collection on the war in all its dimensions and a Walk of Peace visitor centre. Guided tours, booked in advance, leave from the centre, and next door there’s a snack bar serving jota, the local stew. The tourist board suggests exploring the military caverns along the park’s paths and following the peace trail on to Škabrijel and Cerje, where an imposing Monument of Peace stands.

In 2026 there’s a combined Walk of Peace ticket. Buy one for Sabotin and you get a discount at the Cerje Monument of Peace and the Kobarid Museum, the other two big remembrance centres for the front in Slovenia.

What can you see from the top?

A great deal. The foundation describes a panorama that runs from the Vipava Valley and the hills of Brda to the Karst, the Friulian plain and the Julian Alps. It explains at a single glance why this corner was so bitterly contested, with the river and the plain at your feet.

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The Walk of Peace

Sabotin is part of the Walk of Peace, a route of more than 500 km linking more than 300 First World War monuments from the Alps to the Adriatic, across Slovenia and Italy. UNESCO accepted it onto its tentative list in 2016, and in 2020 it was named the best cross-border Interreg project in Europe.

An afternoon on Sabotin

I’d head up from Nova Gorica in the afternoon, explore the galleries with a torch and closed shoes and stay on top until the light softens. If the history of the front grabs you, do Sabotin one day and the Kobarid Museum another, using the combined ticket to save a little. For British visitors with family links to the Great War, the foundation’s centres also help with research into the Isonzo Front.

If you are short on time, see the best tours in Sabotin and pick one that fits your day.

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