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Copyright © 2005 Giorgio Marchetto, All Rights Reserved
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The Asiago War Memorial was designed by the architect Orfeo Rossato from Verona. The inauguration ceremony was presided over by Mussolini in July, 1937. It is a grand and imposing building, constructed from locally mined white marble, and the architectural style is sober. A square base supports a wide terrace and in its centre stands a large square tower with open arcades on either side. An imposing altar stands in the middle of the tower and two large symmetrical staircases lead to the terrace from where you can view the surrounding mountains - the scene of several bloody World War One battles. The crypt beneath the terrace is formed by peripheral and axial corridors which intersect, creating a central area where the altar stands. The walls of the corridors form burial niches where the remains of around 33,086 fallen Italian soldiers are stored - the identities of 20,291 of which are unknown. These bodies were exhumed between 1935 and 1938 from 35 different war cemeteries spread out over the highland. Some years later, the remains of 18,565 Austro-Hungarian soldiers - 12,355 of which are unknown - were also buried here. The War Memorial houses a museum containing an historically interesting collection of arms, photos and of documents of the period and a small cinema hall where video-documentaries are screened on request.
Shortcut to this page: http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/wwp_rss/go/n1696
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