This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)

The Park of Remembrance was built in the aftermath of the First World War. Each fallen Italian soldier would thus be commemorated by planting a tree.

On December 27, 1922, the Ministry of Education, on behalf of Undersecretary Dario Lupi, officially stated “Let the schoolchildren of Italy become promoters of a very noble and compassionate idea: to create in every city, in every country, in every township, a road or a park for remembrance. For every man fallen in the Great War, a tree will be planted.”

HISTORY

The Remembrance Park of Gorizia was opened in 1923, over a 6-acre area previously used as a cemetery. The project is attributed to Enrico Del Debbio, from Carrara – the same main architect of the Foro Italico in Rome.

At the centre of the park, there are some ruins of a neoclassical temple dedicated to the fallen and blown up by Slovenian attackers on August 12, 1944.

In the park, there are also several memorial plaques and monuments, including those commemorating the writer Vittorio Locchi, a volunteer who took part in the capture of Gorizia, between 8 and 9 August 1916. He later wrote the poem “The festival of Santa Gorizia”. Patriots from Gorizia Emilio Cravos and Giovanni Maniacco, shot by the Austrians, in 1915 and 1918 respectively, are commemorated as well.

Then, there is the recently rebuilt memorial to the “Lupi di Toscana” Brigade – this monument was destroyed by the Slavs in 1945 and restored ten years later.
Another stirring plaque commemorates the 565 people from Gorizia who were deported to Yugoslavia on May 3, 1945, and never returned home.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)