Drenchia is the smallest municipality in Friuli-Venezia Giulia by number of inhabitants. In Slovene it is called Dreka, and the name is thought to come from dren, the cornel tree, which grows everywhere around here; it appears in a document of 1295. On the fronts of some houses sacred frescoes can still be seen, attributed to a Friulian painter whom people here called Jacum Pitor. From the summits, on clear days, one can make out the sea and the coasts of Istria.
The ridge of the Kolovrat, which marks the border with Slovenia, was the last Italian line of defence. On the morning of 24 October 1917, when the battle of Caporetto began, the municipality was shelled; then a German lieutenant named Erwin Rommel broke through here with a surprise attack and took the heights. By the Solarie pass stands the monument to the first Italian soldier to fall in the Great War, and along the ridge there is an open-air museum of restored trenches and tunnels.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Drenchia
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
