Italy remembers World War One – la Grande Guerra – a bit differently than World War Two. First off, they were on the winning side in the first war. Second, a little over a hundred thousand more Italians died during the First than the Second – 651,000 to 689,000 compared to approximately 500,000. The vast cost of the First War in treasure and men along with THE thought by Italians as unfair results of their sacrifices at the treaty tables at the war’s end ended destabilizing the nation. Enter the Blackshirts and Benito Mussolini.
STATE OVER THE INDIVIDUAL
A lot of people say a lot of different things and have differing opinions about exactly what fascism is and was. A cultural regeneration creating a “new man” or simply a totalitarian regime using fancy ideation. Fascism was no friend of democracy, but the various movements were able to use the process in place to establish dictatorships in many instances. The idea of individual rights above the rights of the people was condemned. While condemning the Marxist left – which fascist nations would combat in a winner take all combat – fascism, like communism, stood against cultural liberalism and materialism.
Economically, fascist movements tended to be very conservative, favoring the wealthy classes with whom they would ride to power. Socialism was just a word in their repertoire. The wealthy stayed wealthy. Mussolini allowed capitalists to continue running things as before with minimal government interference. Real wages dropped by half between 1928 and 1932 in Italy. Mussolini explained, “fortunately the Italian people were not accustomed to eating much and therefore feel the privation less acutely than others.”
WAR AND FASCISM
Each of the various countries coming into the fascist world between the two World Wars brought their own variations on the scheme to the table.
Mussolini viewed warfare as an important part in the life of a nation, “A minute on the battlefield is worth a lifetime of peace,” “Better to live an hour like a lion than a hundred years like a sheep” and “Nothing has ever been won in history without bloodshed.”
Or this quote from his own Doctrine of Fascism: “Fascism does not … believe in the possibility or utility of perpetual peace. It therefore discards pacifism as a cloak for cowardly supine renunciation in contradistinction to self-sacrifice. War alone keys up all human energies to their maximum tension and sets the seal of nobility on those peoples who have the courage to face it. … all doctrines which postulate peace at all costs are incompatible with Fascism.”
Fascism operates in opposition to liberalism, socialism, and communism. Without a fixed program, the ideology of fascism evolved, a movement of action driven by leaders. “The fist is the synthesis of our theory” as Mussolini explained. “The State has not got a theology but it has a moral code.” In the fascist world, morality fixed itself on concrete examples and not abstract theories. Embodiments of moral strength, the Cauditi – fallen soldiers, were perfect representatives of what Mussolini was after. The whole is more important than the one. A soldier’s death became the ideal symbol of fascist sacrifice for the sake of the many. World War One provided many such embodiments which anti-individualism fascism strove towards.
WAR DEAD BEFORE FASCISM
Italy already celebrated her war dead as heroes before the Blackshirts came onto the scene. Before the middle to later part of the 19th century, soldiers who died on battlefields usually ended up in mass graves dug nearby. Men dying in the battles of the Risorgimiento – Unification of Italy – ended up in wide ditches covered quickly to reduce the stench of death.
The idea of ossuaries, charnel or bone houses, had long been around in Catholic countries, especially monastically. Dying for Italy became ideals of patriotism. The dead started to be exhumed around 1870 to be reburied together in various ossuaries near the battlefields where they died – Novara, San Martino and Solferino during the Second War of Independence of 1859; Custoza and Bezzecca during the Third War in 1866.
Following World War One, Italian soldiers lie buried around the battlefields of the Alps and the Isonzo River in many small cemeteries. Unlike the American – or even French examples – few bodies went home to their families, only about 50,000 of the over 600,000 dead came “home”. Another 170,000 who died from injury or illness also lie buried in urban cemeteries across Italy, especially in towns or cities with large hospitals.
EARLY ATTEMPTS AT MEMORY
To simplify matters and cut the costs of maintaining lots of little burial grounds, concentrations of these cemeteries were carried out in some cases – the large cemetery of Colle Sant’Elia on the little hill opposite the Redipuglia a good example.
In many cases, the idea of ossuaries to hold the war dead became an idea which grew. That idea fit perfectly with the fascist ideal of sacrifice for the many. Ossuaries promoted the idea of war dead serving as templates to follow in life giving support to other fascist programs like nationalism, militarism, and imperialism. In fascism, the State maintains full control over an individual’s life. To die in war became the highest possible aspiration.
The concentration cemeteries where soldiers lie reburied were considered insufficient for the purposes of fascist celebration – again, Colle Sant’Elia a perfect example. Over three hundred thousand remains were exhumed and placed into about thirty various ossuaries created near the former frontlines in northeastern Italy – and today’s Slovenia. Purposely, some of these ossuaries went up on land annexed from Austria-Hungary “to bear witness across the centuries to the heroic sacrifices … so that Italy could be expanded.” Here, the case of Redipuglia fits into this scheme sited on the hillside of Monte Sei Busi directly on the battlefields of the First and Second Isonzo’s.
ARCHITECTURE AND THE STATE
The architecture of the ossuaries changed over time, especially as fascism matured extending its power and its ideas over Italy into the late 1920’s and the 1930’s.
On the pass on the south side of the Monte Pasubio massif is the earliest of the World War One ossuaries, the Pasubio Ossuary built to memorialize the sacrifice of men from the First Army on the extreme battlefields high above.
Pasubio resembles earlier Risorgimiento ossuaries with the bones of the dead displayed. Also, like earlier ossuaries, the dead inside are not just Italian – over 5,100 Italians and some 40 Austro-Hungarians lie here.
Like other ossuaries, men who earned Gold Medals of Valor posthumously lie collected centrally in a crypt. Like at Redipuglia, the body of their commander, General Guglielmo Pecori Giraldi also rests here, moved here in 1953 from a family chapel where he earlier lay for twelve years in Borgo San Lorenzo. The stone of the ossuary – like many ossuaries to come – utilized the rock of the same grounds upon which the men who fell fought earlier. The work began in 1920 with the ossuary dedicated in 1926.
By 1926, Mussolini had become more comfortable in power, having survived the questions revolving around the murder of opposition leader Giacomo Matteoti. But even before that, Blackshirt mythology already came onto play following a contest for the design of a large monument to the soldiers who had fought over a year to gain the summit of Monte San Michele.
Eugenio Baroni, a sculptor of some repute in Italy before the war, served in the army earning a Silver Medal for bravery for actions he took on Mont Grappa. He designed Monument to the Thousand in Genoa, famously inaugurated by Gabriele D’Annunzio in the spring of 1915. Unlike D’Annunzio, Baroni did not see war as the illuminating experience the Vate did.
MONUMENT FOR MONTE SAN MICHELE
At the end of the war, a committee met in Milano to push for the construction of a large ossuary monument atop Monte San Michele dedicated to the simple soldier who personally experienced war’s brutal horrors for over two years in the harsh karst landscape of the Carso. A call for competition to design the monument brought in eighty different projects. Baroni’s project won the approval of the committee. His project became popularly acclaimed when his sketch went on exhibit in May 1922.
DEAD END
Baroni proposed a giant cross-shaped staircase climbing to the top of the mountain. Eight sculptural groups planned to sit along the staircase describing the life of the soldier, from the call to arms to death in combat. On top of the monument, sons of the Fallen watched over the victory. His message through his works, war is pain and suffering. This message ran counter to the Fascist idea of sacrifice in war being an ideal for emulation. Margherita Sarfatti, sometimes mistress of Mussolini and art critic accused the project has having “too much mother” and “too little victory”.
CEMETERIO DEGLI INVITTA
The Cemetery of the Invitti – Undefeated – was consecrated in May 1923. Ironically, Mussolini was in attendance for the ceremony. Over 30,000 bodies – only 5,860 of whose identity known – brought in from some of the small cemeteries in and around the Carso – over 400 bodies of officers. The little hill – Quota 48 – had been occupied by men of the 17th Infantry Regiment belonging to Brigata Acqui on 9 June 1915. Men of Brigata Siena – 31st and 32nd Infantry Regiments – went on to garrison the Colle. Dynamite created seven concentric rings carved into the hillside, an illusion to Dante’s Purgatory.
Atop the hill, a square was levelled for a chapel – chosen on purpose by the Duke of Aosta – built in the shape of a lighthouse emblazoned with a crucifix on all four sides. Inside sorrowful frescoes created by Giuseppi Ciotti – he served as an artilleryman with the Italian corps serving on the Western Front in 1918 – including a dying infantryman lying in the arms of Christ alluding to the soldier’s ascent to Calvary as a final resting place.
A PLAYWRIGHT WRITES THE SCRIPT
Giannino Antona Traversi served as a very important piece of the cemetery. A playwright prior to the war and a liaison officer during, he helped finance the memorial park through lectures, conferences, donations, and the sale of postcards showing his verses which appeared throughout the grounds on headstones. Even after his appointment as a Senator in 1929, he continued correspondence with the many family members seeking out information on lost loved ones until his death in 1939. Tombs became decorated with personal objects taken off the battlefields and epigraphs dictated by Traversi.
From 1920 until 1938, the cemetery served as the main place of memory for the Carso region. Three problems arose. First, more bodies needed to be added as more cemeteries at the foot of the Carso became part of the larger picture. Second, the cemetery showed serious deterioration after its short time in existence. Even with some renovations completed, more were needed.
Third, and this maybe most important, the message sent by the cemetery of personal loss and grief ran counter to the fascist ideal of victory, glory, and self-sacrifice for the greater good of the State. Mussolini decided to scrub the whole thing and rebuild across the street. He saw the cemetery as simply a “great deposit of iron”. A new sacrario became needed.
A NEW HOME FOR MEMORY
The Duce had given the job of leading a commission to build a suitable monument honoring war dead on Monte Grappa after previous failures on that mountain to General Ugo Cei. Cei hired the architect Giovanni Greppi and sculptor Giannino Castiglioni to create the magnificent present memorial atop Monte Grappa, a project mired in difficulty before the general and his team arrived on scene. The trio went on to create the Italian ossuary at Kobarid-Caporetto and even more importantly here at Redipuglia.
FASCIST MORALITY
“Fascism does not … believe in the possibility or utility of perpetual peace. It therefore discards pacifism as a cloak for cowardly supine renunciation in contradistinction to self-sacrifice. War alone keys up all human energies to their maximum tension and sets the seal of nobility on those peoples who have the courage to face it. … all doctrines which postulate peace at all costs are incompatible with Fascism.” This, basic fascism 101 drawn directly from Mussolini’s The Doctrine of Fascism.
He goes on, “Transcending the individual’s brief spell of life, the State stands for the immanent conscience of the nation. … The State hands down to future generations the memory of those who laid down their lives to ensure its safety or to obey its laws; it sets up as examples and records for future ages the names of the captains who enlarge its territory and of the men of genius who have made it famous.”
Unlike other theories of government and society, fascism did not start out with a set of fixed goals but continually evolved over time as the regime ensconced itself into power. Fascism initially defined itself as opposed to socialism, communism, and liberalism. Theory replaced by a movement of action and leadership rather than political thesis.
DEATH AND THE STATE
One of the main features of that moral code came out in the development of the huge ossuaries of the 1930’s. The Fallen – I caduti – represented templates for others to follow in life. To paint those who had sacrificed everything as patriotic models to be looked up to and, if needed, to be followed, became the main purpose of the ossuaries. Following the example of the I caudti, the nation could renew itself emerging as a reformed society. By co-opting memory from veterans’ groups, the Catholic Church and local councils, the State gained the ability to re-write the story.
In dying, a soldier’s death transformed into the highest incarnation of Fascist collectivism, as an anti-individualistic doctrine that privileged collective interests. The State under Fascism hoped to gain limitless powers over all aspects of human life. Individuals found true freedom subordinating themselves to the state. With that goal, to die in war was no longer simply a necessity, but the highest possible aspiration.
Again, many of the ossuaries erected by the fascist government were close to or within areas formerly part of Austria-Hungary – here, the Redipuglia was one example. The new signposts were “to bear witness, across the centuries, to the heroic sacrifices” of those “who died serenely … so Italy could be expanded.” As Mussolini wrote, “Fascism sees in the imperialistic spirit – ie in the tendency of nations to expand – a manifestation of their vitality. In the opposite tendency, which would limit their interests to the home country, it sees a symptom of decadence. Peoples who rise or re-arise are imperialistic; renunciation is characteristic of dying peoples.” Not only did the ossuaries signal subjugation of new territories acquired by Italy, but they also became seen as outposts for future conquest.
DESIGN
Unity of purpose regarding the Fallen, the State and the Sacrifice reflects in the design of all of the fascist-era ossuaries. That unity comes to a peak here at Redipuglia.
Originally, the dead lie buried in smaller cemeteries, graves differentiated by individual markers. At the Redipuglia, the remains of over sixty thousand unknown bodies massed together into crypts with the remains of the known forty thousand set in uniform niches in the stepped monolith of white stone.
Above each massive step, the word PRESENTE stands in reference to the fascist roll call. Here, an officer calls out the names of the dead while the fellow soldier-blackshirts answer “Presente” representing the dead remains in the memory of the living, ready to serve if called upon. The word appears here 880 times in raised letters. Individual names remain nearly invisible written in black against a dark background. Individuality gives way to unity.
Emotional responses were important factors in the design of ossuaries, here no different than others. Scale made people feel small in the face of the “Infinity and Eternity” of the Fatherland. Form, space, light, symbolism all figured in the emotional development of the ossuary.
GENERALS STILL LEAD
Six tombs stand apart at the bottom of the massive staircase. Here is the commander, the Duke of Aosta, a believer in the fascist movement. Arrayed behind him are five generals who served under him. The rest of the men arranged in the stepped niches marching up the mountain in alphabetical order. They appear as an army ready to rise from their graves to return to the fight.
Religion remained a factor in developing the ossuaries, here, as elsewhere. On religion, Mussolini wrote, “The Fascist State is not indifferent to religious phenomena …The State has not got a theology but it has a moral code. The Fascist State sees in religion one of the deepest of spiritual manifestations and for this reason it not only respects religion but defends and protects it.” Christ was never absent from the ossuaries remaining ever-present as a figure of sacrifice. Atop the monolithic staircase of the Redipuglia are three large crosses symbolizing the “Cavalry” of the Fallen. In the Italian tradition of sacri monti, visitors climbed pathways meant to physically tax them. This tool is used effectively in many Catholic sites of pilgrimage. A visitor gains a real sense of indebtedness to i caduti and faith in the State for whom they died.
INAUGURATION
Mussolini took a very busy trip to northeastern Italy on 18 September 1938. On the same day he inaugurated the ossuary here at Redipuglia, he spoke to a vast crowd in Trieste unveiling the first set of racial laws for Italy bringing the nation closer in line with Germany to the north. Two days later, among other stops, he inaugurated the ossuaries at Oslavia and Caporetto (Kobarid). A couple days after that, he flew to Munich to postpone the coming World War for another year.
At the dedication, the event choreographed to bring out emotions of the crowd. Choirs sang, guns roared out salvos as the masses smelled the smoke of past battles once more. They watched as a sun glassed Duce ascended the vast staircase. At the ceremony’s highpoint, soldiers shouted out Presente showing they too awaited orders for the next scene.
Choreography and ritual remained important here at Redipuglia, as well as at other fascist ossuaries. Redipuglia became an important pilgrimage site for veterans’ groups, schoolchildren and fascist youth groups. The goal of visitors, to “pay grateful homage to the memory of the Fallen” taking “from their heroic sacrifice and encouragement to love the Fatherland.” The youth were main targets of the propaganda. Rallies, ceremonies, marching, all to teach the fascist morality. The highest merit awarded to death in battle for the State.
POSTWAR REDIPUGLIA
With another war and a change of government, the ossuaries lost much of their propaganda value. But World War One was still a cathartic moment for Italy. The men who died were not really fascists, but common Italian soldiers for the most part. Conscripted to fight a war most did not understand, they fought and died. The ossuaries remain some of the most impressive sites from the fascist period.
Scrubbed of some of the fascist symbology, Redipuglia remains one of the most important sites of First War memory in Italy. It is common for an Italian president to come here to give a speech on 4 November – the end of the First War for Italy in 1918. The grounds remain under the jurisdiction of the Defense Ministry. It remains a site of memory and a popular tourist destination within the region. Memory and mythology still intermingle here on the side of Monte Sei Busi.
VISITS TODAY
There is a large parking lot across the highway running from Monfalcone to Gorizia. It sits next to the former cemetery of Colle Sant’Elia. The oformer cemetery repurposed after its closure into one of the innumerable Parchi delle Rimembranza one finds throughout Italy. In the park, some of the detritus of war remains. Many of the plaques stand among the many poplar trees growing on the hill. Renovations closed much of the park off when I visited. You can find some of the war debris up in the Third Army Museum atop the Redipuglia Ossuary.
WAY OF THE HEROES
From the parking lot, cross the road carefully – room for improvements here? – and enter the shrine.
Walking up the Via Eroica – Way of the Heroes – you pass a series of tablets. Inscriptions recall the various battles which took place here on the Carso.
Then, in front of their “men” are the generals.
Front and center, lies the tomb of Emanuele Filiberto, the Duke of Aosta. He commanded the Third Army for most of the war. Dying in 1931 and according to his wishes, after a funeral in Torino, he was buried with his men. He first lay across the way atop Colle Sant’Elia and later, front and center, here at the Redpuglia. Behind the Duke are five of his generals.
Interestingly, three of the five generals also died postwar with their remains moved here later. One general, Giuseppi Paolini, created the Cemetery of the Fallen on the Colle Sant’Elia. Another, Giovanni Prelli, served in the Second Army. Also dying postwar, he first lie in the military cemetery upstream at Plava. That cemetery, known as “Prelli Cemetery” closed with the further concentration of cemeteries into the ossuarios. Most of the men at Plava ended up at the Oslavia Ossuary across from Gorizia while Prelli’s remains went here.
Off to the side of the Via Eroica is the Armored Trench – Trincea Blindata. These trenches manned by Italian soldiers of the Siena, Savona and Cagliari brigades. They fought here during the early days of the First and Second Battles of the Isonzo in late June-July 1915. Many men would die in the fights for the slopes above.
STEPS OF THE HEROES
Eugenio Baroni’s project for nearby Monte San Michele eventually was shot down by Mussolini in 1922. However, his idea of a titanic staircase climbing up the slopes gained incorporation to the gigantic ossuary here at Redipuglia. Smaller stairways for mere mortals flank the stepped tombs of the dead as rank after rank reach up the slopes. The dead go up alphabetically from the “A’s” on the bottom left to the “Z’s” on top right.
One exception is a lone nurse who died from complications of the Spanish flu. Her niche sits at the bottom marked with a large cross, unique in the vast sameness of the tomb steps. Her remains were moved from across the street like the Duke’s and many more.
Known burials are marked by name, rank, and unit. If a soldier earned a medal of valor, that also gains recognition on his headstone.
Another exception is found on top after the “Z’s”. Here, eleven crew members – only one of the crew survived – of the Italian submarine Jalea. The submarine hit a mine and sank 17 August 1915. The remains of the men recovered only in 1954. They were joined two years later by the men who died aboard Jalea’s sister submarine, Medusa.
The Medusa sank from a torpedo shot from a small coastal submarine U-15. The U-15 came shipped south by rail from Germany to its Austro-Hungarian ally 10 June 1915. It’s remains along with thirteen crew members recovered in 1956. The 24 men are the only naval contingent amongst the army masses.
Others, whose remains were discovered among the sinkholes of the Carso after 1938, also are remembered on the top step, out of alphabetical order.
RELIGION AND BEYOND
In the center of the top of the shrine is a small chapel. The piece above the altar, designed by Ciotti, was brought across the street from the older chapel atop Colle Sant’Elia. A plaque notes a visit by Pope Francis in 2014. Flanking the chapel are two large crypts each holding the remains of 30,000 men whose identities remain unknown.
Behind the top of the shrine are museums on either side of the chapel. They are devoted to the efforts of the Third Army here on the Carso.
Men who lie here in the steps of the Redipuglia get a small bit of their story told here. Tales of the men who earned gold medals for bravery and others. Pieces of the war formerly found across the street at the former Cemetery of the Undefeated also present here.
In back of the museums are artillery pieces. A walkway leads to a small belvedere surrounding a cast iron map of the Carso. Various geographical points of interest are pointed out in a 360-degree view guide.
Also here, a monument to Sergeant Giovanni Rossi who was an assistant surveyor with the Civil Engineers before the war. Rossi, served with a engineering unit. He went out three times placing explosive tubes underneath Austrian barbed wire fences on 2 July 1915. The third time he was killed. The site of his death is here atop the shrine.
DIGGING DEEPER
– Picture courtesy of WW1 Front Line 3D Group.
There are several online sources – in case you missed some of the earlier weblinks in the text. Here, you may dig deeper into the story of Redipuglia and Italian military ossuaries. I earlier wrote about the ossuary further up the Isonzo River at Caporetto-Kobarid.
Some of the weblinks are in English and some in Italian. Google translator does a fair job in those cases.
Memory in the landscape – Novecento.org
Momenti della visita del Duce a Gorizia – YouTube
Il discorso di Mussolini a Trieste del 18 settembre 1938 – YouTube
Medusa class (1910) – I Sommergibili d’Italia – Betasom – XI Gruppo Sommergibili Atlantici
Shrine of Redipuglia (prolocofoglianoredipuglia.it)
L_opera_immane_ebook_indicizzato.pdf (unige.it)
Microsoft Word – The Doctrine of Fascism.doc (sjsu.edu)
Feeling Political in Military Cemeteries: Commemoration Politics in Fascist Italy | SpringerLink
Colle Sant’Elia – Military Memorial of Redipuglia (sacrarioredipuglia.it)
Shrine of Redipuglia – Military Memorial of Redipuglia (sacrarioredipuglia.it)