At the time of the Great War, the Val Contrin was the gateway to the first Austrian lines towards the Marmolada and the Cime d’Ombretta, beyond which the Royal Italian Army and, in particular, the 206th Company of the Val di Cordevole, commanded by the famous Captain Arturo Andreoletti, were stationed.
It was he who demanded that the Italian artillery, placed on the overhanging Cime Cadine, keep the Contrinhaus under fire, to the point of hitting and burning it, in September 1915. In fact, the hut, built by the Nuremberg Alpenverein in 1827, was the headquarters of the Austrian zone command. It was rebuilt and inaugurated in 1926. Three years later, a second refuge named after Second Lieutenant Efrem Reatto and a chapel-church dedicated to the fallen Alpine soldiers were built next to it.
