Castle In The Sky, Gruppo Di Fanis, Dolomites, Italy

In the heart of the Dolomites, the Gruppo di Fanis dal Lagazuoi gently floats in a near perfect white autumn sky ; hidden to the human-eye by a deep dense layer of fog…

Located right along the front line during World War I battles between Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Gruppo di Fanis is a Swiss-cheese of tunnels and forts carved deep in the mountains by soldiers of the opposing armies. A century later, the time did its soothing work but the tunnels, the History and the souls remains up there in the Mountains, floating in the sky, hidden by a cocoon of cloud and revealing itself with much modesty to the eye of daring mountaineers.

As I came up above the clouds, this mountains range and its history revealed itself as a direct impersonation of “Laputa”, the floating city of Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki’s movie “Castle in the Sky” (1986) ; a floating city that endured many battles and tries to hide away from Humanity.

“Castle in the Sky” is a 15-images stitched panorama making the original file a 33000×11000 pixels picture and enabling the viewer to explore every square inch of the image to find the very visible remains of the Great War.