TABLE 8

HURST – SILVA MAGNA
HÖRST bush
SILVA MAGNA large forest

Hörst_ (a. 1554) term derived from the Cimbrian HÖRST “bush, small spot” on gnarled, wooded and grazing land with trees, of 25 fields or the size of the manso that… in the evening has the common road… or the Antica Strada del Costo defined by the Italian Land Registry of 1906 as “Strada Comunale dell’Hust a road that from Cesuna descends southwards along the Magnaboschi valley”.
The town is located at the entrance to the valley, and also of the medieval road, of Magnaboschi (a. 1503) from which the surname Magnabosco originated. Both names in fact should derive from the popular translation of the previous toponym of ancient Latin origin.
Silva Magna “great forest” Latin term well documented with Selve (a. 1204) and Silva Magna (a. 1322) which is probably earlier than Magnaboschi.
The Antica Strada del Costo in the downhill section from Cesuna to Hurst saw its very first recovery intervention in April 2018 by the volunteers of Montagne e Solidarietà APS. The ancient road was completely invaded and buried by bushes, trunks and fallen trees which engaged the volunteers in two intense days of work to free it and make it passable again.
Nearby, following the First World War, there was also an Italian-Austrian cemetery named after Captain Antonio Brandi which welcomed the bodies of 1576 Austrians and 332 Italians who fell on the overlying Lèmerle. About sixty years ago, the bodies were transferred from the Hurst cemetery to the Asiago Ossuary while the tombstones, now no longer visible, had been abandoned to neglect.