Most of the year, partly even in summer, it is covered in snow. To reach it, starting from Val di Pejo, in Trentino, it takes at least 5 hours of very hard walking, on the steep and impervious path that leads to Mount Vioz. Just beyond the Vioz, one of the peaks of the Ortles-Cevedale Dolomite group, at exactly 3.632 meters of altitude there is Punta Linke: during the First World War it was one of the highest and most strategic outposts of the Austro-Hungarian troops in the conflict against Italy, today it is the highest museum in Europe. Inaugurated in 2014, on the occasion of the centenary of the beginning of the Great War, the post then abandoned by the Austrian military still retains part of the arsenal and the documentation that testifies to their presence: their recovery was possible thanks also to the harsh climatic conditions and to the ice that up there for most of the year keeps the finds and that until 2005 even kept them hidden.
But it was also the recovery interventions by man that preserved the integrity of the site, collecting moreover extraordinary data on the experience of warfare in the high mountains and returning them to the public through an at least suggestive museum layout, to be reached in the company of a guide or even on your own, if you are a hiker experienced enough to venture beyond 3.000 metres. The nearby Vioz refuge, today a welcoming accommodation for tourists but at the time the headquarters of the sector command of the foreign troops, can in fact be reached on foot, without the need for special equipment, without via ferratas, without climbing and - in summer - with the almost completely clear of ice and snow. However, the difference in altitude is considerable: starting from the Doss dei Gembri refuge, which can be reached by lifts at 2.315 metres, you have to walk uphill for almost 5 km, with a difference in altitude of 1.200 metres.
To allow visits to the site both externally and internally, the route up to Punta Linke has in any case been equipped to guarantee relatively easy access. At the main entrance, on the western side, a small terrace with a parapet was built. In addition to recovery of the structures and the relocation of the finds in the internal environments, the visit itinerary was completed with the philological recovery of the cableway (disassembled immediately after the war) which served the Punta Linke station, historical testimony and at the same time guideline for orientation in case of poor visibility in the insidious crossing of the glacier of the altarpiece of the Vioz. From that important outpost, the Austro-Hungarians hastily fled, leaving almost all materials aside from those of the finest metal, such as copper and brass. The remaining "treasure" of cannons, barbed wire, various tools, lamps and documents is now on public display.
