In a quiet town in Veneto, two 76-year-old neighbors have made a discovery worthy of a movie. Danilo Pellegrinifrom Venice, and Luciano Chiereghin, from Porto Tolle (Rovigo), located underground a war colossus missing since 1918: a gigantic Skoda cannon used by the Austro-Hungarian army during the First World War.
The weapon, nicknamed by them Il Lungo Giorgio (“The Long Giorgio”), would have been responsible for the devastating bombings on Asiagoone of the Italian towns hardest hit by enemy artillery. The discovery was the result of years of research and precision technology, which led some to compare them to secret agents for their tenacity and detective patience.
The discovery occurred in a rural area between Gorgo and Oderzo, in the province of Treviso. There, Chiereghin detected an anomaly in a series of satellite images obtained through the United States Geological Survey’s Landsat system. The thermal images, when filtered, revealed a buried metallic mass with a shape and dimensions that coincided with those of the legendary missing cannon.
After obtaining permission from the land owners, the researchers began prospecting with a Föster Ferex military magnetometer, a Sors Oerad Pro georadar and a high precision GPS. The results confirmed the existence of a metal structure about twenty meters long, about four meters deep. According to experts, All signs point to it being the mythical Lungo Giorgio.
The history of this cannon dates back to the last years of the Great War. After the Italian defeat at Caporetto, the Austro-Hungarian troops located it near Gorgo del Monticano to prepare the offensive towards Venice. His first shot, on June 15, 1918, marked the beginning of the so-called Battle of the Solstice, one of the most intense of the conflict. on the Piave front.
Despite rumors and testimonies from soldiers who claimed to have seen the weapon at the end of the war, its whereabouts had remained a mystery for more than a century. Many considered it destroyed or dismantled. However, the perseverance of two amateur researchers, supported by local engineers and technicians, has returned to the map one of the most powerful symbols of World War I artillery.
Now, civil and military authorities are evaluating the steps to follow to excavate the area and officially verify the discovery. If confirmed, the discovery of Il Lungo Giorgio will not will only rewrite a forgotten chapter of the Italian frontbut will crown these two “spies of history” as protagonists of one of the most surprising archaeological recoveries of the century.
