The Redipuglia War Memorial

The memorial of the Great War

On the slopes of Monte Sei Busi, on the edge of the Carso near Gorizia, in the area where some of the bloodiest battles of the First World War were fought between the Italian and Austro-Hungarian armies, stands the Sacrario Militare di Redipuglia, the largest Italian war memorial and one of the largest in the world. Inaugurated in 1938, it holds the remains of about 100,000 Italian soldiers who fell on this front, of whom about 40,000 identified and the others, about 60,000, unknown, gathered in two large tombs at the top. The monument has the shape of an immense staircase of white stone, with 22 steps, each of which bears the names of the identified soldiers, in alphabetical order, and is repeated the word "PRESENTE", "present", as if the fallen were answering a roll call.

At the foot of the staircase lies the tomb of the Duke of Aosta, commander of the Third Army, who wished to be buried among his soldiers, surrounded by the tombs of his generals. At the top, three crosses and a small chapel dominate the landscape, and from here the view sweeps over the Carso, the plain and the sea, the places of the battles of the Isonzo. In front of the memorial, on the hill of Sant'Elia, there is a park with remains of the war and the Museo della Terza Armata, and nearby trenches, tunnels and the open-air museum of Monte San Michele can be visited. Redipuglia is a place of deep emotion and reflection on the tragedy of war, visited every year by thousands of people.

Tip: climb the steps to the top for the view; then visit the trenches and the Monte San Michele open-air museum nearby.

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Where it is

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