Monteviale

Between 1917 and 1918, the whole municipality of Monteviale underwent important defence and military road works, since it had found itself in the southern part of the Ortogonale 1 strategic line. Exploiting the hills of the Agno – Leogra ridge, the line would have prevented the Austrian troops to reach Verona in the event of collapse of the eastern front.
A second defence line, the so-called line of the plain, designed in 1916, after the Strafexpedition, ran along the hillfoot from Magrè to Monteviale.

The Ortogonale 1 crestline, from Ignago to Mt. Delle Quaglie, represented the western defence of the entrenched field of Vicenza, ensuring the protection of the town and the surrounding plain thanks to the artillery.
In June 1916 and up until the end of the war, Her Royal Highness Hélène of Orléans, Duchess of Aosta and general surveyor of the Italian Red Cross, chose Villa Zileri as her headquarters for her visits to the military hospitals near the front.

In November 1917, after Caporetto, the troops of the 47th Division of the French Army lined up along the Agno – Leogra ridgeline, from Monteviale to Priabona. To complete the strategic line a series of strongholds dominating the plain eastwards was built.
Upon proposal of the French commanders, new sections of roads were built along the western side of the ridgeline, from Creazzo to Ignago, and the existing ones were improved, in order to ensure the movement of troops and the delivery of supplies.

On 28th April 1918, His Royal Highness Edward VIII, Prince of Wales, who had reached Italy with the British Army, was hosted by the Duchess of Aosta in Villa Zilieri.