WAR SITES
Military cemeteries
WAR SITES
Scars of war
The First World War is a fundamental piece of Italian history and a deep scar in the country’s recent past, but especially so for the story of these places, which lived it more intensely.
After the war, all the countries involved had to deal with the problem of rapidly burying the myriads of dead on the battlefields or after wounds or illness, and a large-scale operation began to clear the land of unexploded devices and various other materials and recover the bodies of the fallen.
In the short term, the dead on the battlefront near the firing line were buried in existing civilian cemeteries in nearby areas where possible, or in cemeteries improvised near forts or field hospitals; these are referred to in Italian as cimiteri di guerra, “war cemeteries”. Space was generally found for those who died in hospitals behind the lines in cemeteries of nearby villages, sometimes in specially fenced-off areas.
Afterwards the need to give soldiers a more fitting resting place was felt and in 1920, therefore, by Italian War Ministry decree, the Ufficio centrale per la cura e per le onoranze dei Caduti in guerra was instituted with the duty of caring for and honouring the war dead.
In the years that followed the fallen buried in temporary “war cemeteries” were gathered and taken to cemeteries more suitable for visitors and near urban centres and these were referred to as cimiteri militari – “military cemeteries”.
In 1931 a law was enacted under the name of Sistemazione definitiva delle salme dei Caduti in guerra on permanent arrangements for the remains of war dead, which closed war and military cemeteries because, for various reasons, they did not make it possible for soldiers’ remains to find a safe and fitting resting place. This law led to the final transfer of the remains of the fallen to places that were more suitable for their commemoration; consequently, work started on building war memorials in around the 1930s.
READING TIPS
Cimiteri Militari della Prima Guerra Mondiale nell’Altopiano dei Sette Comuni.
Ricognizione e censimento(“First World War military cemeteries in the Plateau of the Seven Municipalities. Survey and census, catalogues and describes the military cemeteries that were built on the Asiago Plateau.”)has been written which catalogues and describes the military cemeteries that were built on the Asiago Plateau.
“Voi siete quelli che non
parleranno
voi resterete a far
testimonianza del martirio
di allora”
