Lake Garda

The town "Riva del Garda", partly seen here, belonged to Austria up to WWI. Today the northern end of Lake Garda is part of "South Tyrol", while the southern end belongs to the Lombardy.

In 1856 the "Battle of Solferino" was fought near the southern end. The allied French Army under Napoleon III and Sardinian Army under Victor Emmanuel II defeated the Austrian Army under Emperor Franz Joseph I.

When Swiss businessman Henry Dunant arrived at the battlefield he was shocked to see thousands of wounded, dying and dead troops. He wrote down his memories in the book "A Memory of Solferino" which not only inspired the creation of the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1863, but as well the First Geneva Convention a year later.