ITALIA   ITALY
autonome Region: Trentino-Südtirol / regione autonoma: Trentino-Alto Adige	|	regione: Veneto
autonome Provinz: Bozen – Südtirol / provincia autonoma: Bolzano – Alto Adige	|	provincia: Belluno

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The Tre Cime di Lavaredo (Italian for "Three Peaks"), also called the Drei Zinnen (German), are three distinctive battlement-like peaks, in the Auronzo Dolomites of northeastern Italy. They are probably one of the best-known mountain groups in the Alps. The three peaks (on glass no. 2632 depicted from their north side), from east to west, are known as the Cima Piccola / Kleine Zinne ("Little Peak", 2,857 m, [left]), Cima Grande / Große Zinne ("Big Peak", 2,999 m, [centre]) and Cima Ovest / Westliche Zinne ("Western Peak", 2,973 m, [right]). Until 1919 the peaks formed part of the border between Italy and Austria. Now they lie on the border between the Italian provinces of Bolzano-Alto Adige / Bozen-Südtirol (regione Trentino-Alto Adige) and Belluno (regione Veneto) and still are a part of the linguistic boundary between German-speaking and Italian-speaking majorities.

The Dreizinnenhütte / Rifugio Antonio Locatelli – S. Innerkofler [foreground left] is located at an elevation of 2,405 m at the foot of the Paternkofel / Monte Paterno and offers a splendid view to the Drei Zinnen / Tre Cime. The plans for the first mountain hut were drawn up in 1881 by the Hochpustertal section of the German and Austrian Alpine Club. As the construction was subsidised by the Central Committee of the Alpine Club, this first shelter, a small stone building with a kitchen with table ans stove and a sleeping accomodation on straw for 18 people was completed already in September of 1882. However, due to bad weather conditions, it took until August of 1883 for it to be officially inaugurated. The hut was enlarged in 1886 and 1891, and from 1892 it was also run as a mountain inn. In 1898 the management of the hut was taken over by the mountain guide Sepp Innerkofler who in 1903 also opened a hotel in the Fischleintal / Val Fiscalina. Innerkofler had become famous for his first ascent in 1890 onto the Kleine Zinne / Cima Piccola via the difficult north face (grade IV by today's standards). The Dreizinnenhütte was expanded in 1907 by the addition of another floor. During World War I shelling by Italian grenades destroyed the hut. Today's mountain hut was built in 1935 on the ruins of the original one by a cooperation of the Padova and Bolzano sections of the CAI. After World War II the hut was renovated in 1946 by the Padova section of the CAI, which had also purchased the shares of the Bolzano section. Today, the hut is named for Antonio Locatelli (1895–1936), an Italian aviator, journalist and politician, and Sepp Innerkofler. It is visited by about 2,000 guests each year.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tre_Cime_di_Lavaredo, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreizinnenhütte]