 In 1894 Levico was elevated to the rank of city ("Stadtgemeinde"), by Imperial-Royal Decree, under Franz Joseph I of Austria, and in 1896 it was reached by the Valsugana railway.At the outbreak of World War I Levico was still part of Austria-Hungary, and as such it supplied a contingent of soldiers (The 1st Kaiserjäger Regiment had a battalion stationed in the city).The civilian population, though, was mostly deported to internment camps ("Internierungslager") in the heartland of the Empire when Italy joined the Entente on May 24, 1915.