Due to the closeness to the Dolomite front, during World War I 1914 - 1918 several army hospitals were located in San Candido. So many wounded and ill soldiers died in these hospitals, that it was no longer possible to bury them all in the cemetery of the Collegiate Church. Major Josef Baumgartner then appointed the imperial and royal border section command no. 10 with the construction of an interconfessional soldier's cemetery.  The military administration agreed to build the cemetery at their own expense and to care for its dignified decoration and enclosure. The necessary works started in summer 1915 under the direction of Captain Pittner, so that the first soldiers could be buried on the newly build cemetery by the end of July 1915. On 12th of March 1916 the cemetery and the chapel were consecrated by the division priest Anton Pircher, and handed over by Major General Karl Englert.   By November 1918 more than 700 soldiers known by name were buried in single graves, among them members of the imperial and royal army, Italian, Russian, Romanian and Serbian war prisoners as well as Bosnians, and many unknown soldiers in a common grave.