Colle Sant’Elia of Redipuglia

Colle Sant'Elia is located opposite the Memorial of Redipuglia, where once stood the Cemetery of the Undefeated of the Third Army, the first memorial of WW I. Promoted by the Military Office for the Fallen in War as early as 1919, the cemetery opened in 1923 and used to accommodate the remains of 30,000 soldiers who fell in the area. When the Memorial of Redipuglia opened in 1938, the Cemetery of the Undefeated was dismissed and converted into a Memorial Park.

It was initially designed by army colonel Vincenzo Paladini, who, taking inspiration from Dante's Purgatory, designed a complex consisting of seven circular sections stretching from the bottom to the hilltop. On the latter, a chapel and a lighthouse-shaped obelisk stood at the end of the large boulevards. Opposite the hill, you can see Mt. Sei Busi and the frontline of the Karst around Gorizia, where thousands of soldiers lost their lives.

The whole was designed to deliver a strong emotional impact on visitors. The Hill was made even more suggestive by the aesthetic choice for the burials, which intended to revive the randomness of death. War materials found around Mt. Sei Busi replaced traditional crosses indeed, accompanied by inscriptions of poetic verses. Here, the intent was to remind that tombs in wartime were usually built using materials found on battlefields.
In the following years, though, due to climate conditions, many artefacts used for the tombs showed signs of damage. A number of restoration interventions followed up but they were definitely halted in 1936, when the fascist regime came up with the idea of the Memorial of Redipuglia, with the aim of creating a monumental work celebrating all fallen soldiers of the Great War. 30,000 bodies were thus moved from this cemetery, which lost its original function.

At the end of WW II, Colle Sant'Elia was converted into a Memorial Park. Now it consists of a wide boulevard with large steps, where reproductions of the original war relics and inscriptions are placed. On the top, there is no more chapel or obelisk, but a Roman column from Aquileia commemorating soldiers who died in all wars.

INFORMATION
Via III Armata
I-34070 Fogliano Redipuglia (GO)
Tel. +39 0481 489024

+39 0481 489024

Opening hours
All the time

FOR FURTHER IFORMATION
Sentieri di Pace -IAT Fogliano Redipuglia
Via III Armata, 37
I-34070 Fogliano Redipuglia (GO)
Tel. +39 0481 489139
Cell. +39 346 1761913
info@prolocofoglianoredipuglia.it

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