Brigata Liguria Italian military cemetery
The Italian military cemetery Brigata Liguria is a collective cemetery established during the First World War on Monte Pasubio . It is surmounted by a triumphal arch in Roman style from the 1930s.
history
The cemetery was one of the largest that had been laid out on the Pasubio during World War I. It was built by members of the Liguria Infantry Brigade (157 ° and 158 ° Infantry Regiment), which was in position on the Pasubio from July 1916 under the command of General Achille Papa . The cemetery was located directly behind the Italian front line, which ran just a few hundred meters further north from the Selletta Commando to the Italian plate to the west , and was one of a total of three cemeteries in this area.
Originally referred to as the Sette Croci cemetery , although this field name refers to a depression further north in what was then no man's land in which the brigade suffered high losses in October 1916, it was renamed the “Di qui non si passa” cemetery in the post-war period . We can't go any further ) renamed. He received this designation based on the motto of the Liguria Brigade, which it acquired in 1916 during the Austro-Hungarian spring offensive on the plateau of the seven municipalities south of Asiago in the defensive battles around Monte Zovetto. In 1926 a wrought-iron sign with this motto was put up on the way to the cemetery area.
Shortly after the end of the war, the Schio Section of the Club Alpino Italiano took care of all military cemeteries in the summit area of Monte Pasubio, including the cemetery of the Liguria Brigade. In 1920 the Section had a bronze plaque set up on the cemetery grounds. In 1922, the first funeral mass was held in the cemetery on November 4th, the day the armistice came into effect in 1918 .
In 1928 the bones were transferred to the newly built ossuary at Passo Pian delle Fugazze and a small chapel was to be built in place of the abandoned cemetery. Instead of the chapel, a Roman triumphal arch in monumental fascist style was finally built by the municipality of Schio and inaugurated in August 1935 in the presence of Guglielmo Pecori Giraldi , during the war the commander of the 1st Italian Army responsible for the Pasubio and chairman of the monument committee responsible for its construction. The building was intended to commemorate the dead, whose remains still rest on the Pasubio.
The former cemetery grounds and the triumphal arch were restored between 2009 and 2011.
description
The semicircular cemetery on a small hill at 2035 m slm is located a few meters below the road that leads from the Porte del Pasubio saddle at the Rifugio Achille Papa to the Selletta Commando saddle , named after the Italian section command located there at 2081 m slm .
164 dead were buried on the terraced cemetery grounds with a low wall. These were exclusively in individual graves and if the person who had fallen was known, their name, rank and unit were given on the tombstone. For the unknown dead, the words Caduto per la Patria ( Eng. Favor for the fatherland ) were written on the tombstone .
The cemetery area is dominated by the 7 m high and 5 m wide Roman arch made of local natural stone with a small altar. This was built according to a project by the two engineers from Schio, Giovanni Battista Saccardo and Gian Antonio Donadelli, in place of a stone pyramid that originally stood there. The bundles of lictors attached to the side of the arched columns point back to the monument's fascist past, as do the Latin inscriptions on all four sides.
On the southern front side the inscription reads:
“ITALIAE MILITIBUS ADHUC SUB RUINIS IN ACIE SOMMUM QUI DORMIUNT HEROUM”
"The soldiers of Italy who still sleep the sleep of heroes under the ruins of the battlefield."
On the west side:
“FIDE ET SANGUINE TECTUS PASUBIUS ITALIAE SEMPER VITAE E VICTORIAE VOLUNTAS INDOMITA FUIT MDCCCCLVIII – MCMXVIII”
"Shrouded in loyalty and blood, the Pasubio was always the unconquerable will for the life and victory of Italy from 1848 to 1918."
On the east side:
“NON ULTRA JANUA PASUBIUS ITALIAE FATA AD MAJORA SED ARA MARTYRUM”
"The Pasubio will no longer be a gateway to Italy, but an altar for the martyrs of greater destinies"
On the north side:
“ROMAE SACRA LEX ITERUM VICTRIX AD HAEC CACUMINA REDIT ET ULTRA CDLXXVI – MCMXVIII”
"The sacred, victorious right of Rome returns to these summits and beyond 476–1918"
The inscriptions refer to the great past of Italy. A reference is made from the Roman Empire to the Italian Wars of Independence and the shaking off of foreign rule, but also points to the glorious future of the new nation, in line with the fascist ideology. So 476 symbolizing the year the end of the Western Roman Empire , during the year 1848 refers to the first independence war, when at Passo delle Pian Fugazze below the Pasubio Italian volunteer corps under the patriot and poet Arnaldo Fusinato stayed Austrian troops. The year 1918 not only symbolizes the victory over the archenemy Austria, but is also considered the conclusion of the Italian unification.
On the south side of the hill, below the arch, there is a tunnel that was built during the First World War and serves as an ossuary for the human bones that can still be found on the Pasubio.
photos
The cemetery area with the Roman arch and the tunnel entrance below
Front of the arch
Motto of the Brigade Liguria "We can't go any further"
Memorial stone for those of the Liguria Brigade who fell at Pasubio in October 1916
Tombstone
literature
- Mario Ceola: Pasubio eroico . Museo storico italiano della guerra , Rovereto 1939 (unchanged new edition 1993).
- Comune di Schio (ed.): Monte Pasubio. Comune di Schio, Schio 1935.
- Ecomuseo Grande Guerra Prealpi Vicentine (Ed.): Pasubio: Il monte più conteso . Marcolin, Schio 2014.
- Ignazzio Marchioro: La “Zona Sacra Monumentale” on Monte Pasubio. In: Comunità Montana Leogra Timonchio Schio (ed.): Sentieri culturali in Valleogra. No. 14, Menin, Schio 2014.
- Terenzio Sartore, Gianni Conforto: CAI di Schio: Cento anni. Uomini e montagne dal 1892 al 1992 . Club Alpino Italiano Sezione di Schio, Schio 1992.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Ecomuseo Grande Guerra Prealpi Vicentine (Ed.): Pasubio: Il monte più conteso o. S.
- ^ Mario Ceola: Pasubio eroico p. 293.
- ^ Terenzio Sartore, Gianni Conforto: CAI di Schio: Cento anni. Uomini e montagne dal 1892 al 1992 pp. 267-268.
- ^ Terenzio Sartore, Gianni Conforto: CAI di Schio: Cento anni. Uomini e montagne dal 1892 al 1992 p. 270.
- ^ Terenzio Sartore, Gianni Conforto: CAI di Schio: Cento anni. Uomini e montagne dal 1892 al 1992 p. 269.
- ↑ a b c Comune di Schio (Ed.): Monte Pasubio o. S.
- ↑ Il cimitero delle 7 croci restaurato dai fanti (Italian) accessed on October 3, 2018.
- ↑ Ignazzio Marchioro: La "Zona Sacra Monumental" sul Monte Pasubio S. 154th
Coordinates: 45 ° 47 '33.2 " N , 11 ° 11' 7.8" E