San Antonio de Padua (Saragossa)

The church of San Antonio de Padua in Saragossa in Spain is the mausoleum of the 2,889 Italian members of the fascist Corpo Volontarie who died in the Spanish Civil War .

After the Spanish Civil War , efforts began to erect a central grave monument for the Italian volunteers who were killed and who fell on Franco's side . The fallen, buried all over Spain, should be commemorated in a central grave monument. The Capuchin Father Varzi Pietro found a suitable place in Zaragoza, the city where religion had triumphed over Marxist atheism and which was protected by the Blessed Virgin of Pilar during the civil war .

Pietro received approval and adequate financial support from the Italian fascist government . In 1940 the architect Víctor Eusa Rázquin began planning a mausoleum with a church . He designed a military-style building with a monumental tower and four large sloping arches that form a kind of open portico. On May 3, 1942 the foundation stone was laid by the Italian Ambassador D. Lequio Francisco . The grave monument was inaugurated on July 25, 1945.

Web links

• Description of the Church (Spanish), accessed May 27, 2012
• Dimas Vaquero: [1] Guerra civil y Memoria, El sacrario Militare Italiano de Zaragoza (Spanish), accessed May 27, 2012

Coordinates: 41 ° 38 ′ 4.7 "  N , 0 ° 53 ′ 8.4"  W.