THE ITALIAN UNKNOWN SOLDIER

In this text I’m going to write a summary of the history and the realisation of the Italian Unknown soladier.

The Italian unknown soldier is an Italian soldier who fought in the First World War and died during it. The unknown soldier is buried in the Altare della Patria in Rome.

The grave of the Unknown soldier is a commemoration of all the soldiers died during the Great War.

After the end of the First World War in 1920, the superior general Giulio Doueth proposed to honour all the Italian soldier died in War for their Country with the creation of a monument to the Unknown Soldier in Rome, in specific at the Altare della Patria in Rome. This idea was accept by the honourable Cesare Maria De Vecchi, that made it on his own presenting it to the Camera of the Deputies in 1921. In the same year was approved a law draw that authorize the construction of a monument to commemorate all the Italian died soldiers. The law was approved by the Parliament.

The Minister of the War designed a commission that have the task to identify eleven Italian soldiers’ bodies unidentified. One of them will be chose to be buried in the Altare della Patria as a symbol of the Unknown soldier. The eleven bodies where chosen between other bodies, but they came from different specific areas where the War took place.

The eleven coffins were brought provisionally to Gorizia and then to Aquileia in Friuli Venezia Giulia. In Rome, at the same time, were built the grave that would have host the coffin of one Unknown Soldier in the Altare della Patria; the Unknown soldier’s body would be buried under the Rome’s goddess.

The Unknown soldier’s body was chose by Maria Bergamas, Antonio Bergamas’ mother. He was a young Italian irredentist volunteer from Gradisca D’Isonzo who deserted the Austro – Hungarian Army to fight with the Italian one and he died less his body was never found.

The soldier’s body was chosen on the 28^th October 1921 in the Basilica of Aquileia. In front of maria Bergamas there were eleven coffins; she started passing near some of them, but suddenly she fell down on a coffin screaming his son’s name thinking it was his son’s coffin. That coffin became the chosen coffin as the symbol of the Unknown soldier.

The coffin was placed on a train that brought it to Rome and was accompanied by some veterans rewared with the Gold Medal of Honour.

The others ten coffins were buried in the military cemetery of Aquileia.

The coffin was carried to Rome passing along all the North and Centre Italy with a moderate speed to permit to all the Italian people to honoured the Unknown Soldier.

The ceremony had is conclusion in Rome on the 4^th November 1921. In Rome, the coffin was hosted by the Italian Force Armies, the soldiers representations, the widows and the died soldier’s mothers, all these ones were put up alongside by the Italian king Vittorio Emanuele III of Savoia. The Unknown Soldier’s coffin was brought, by some soldiers honoured by the Gold Medal of Honour to the Santa Maria degli Angeli’s Basilica. Was chosen the 4^th November as date to buried the Unknown Soldier because it is the National Unity Day and the Force Army Day in Italy.

The inscription on the tomb say “Ignoto militi”, “XXIV MAGGIO MCMXV” and “IV NOVEMBER MCMXVIII” dates of the beginning and the end of the First World War.

The Unknown Soldier’s monument was wanted from all the men, mothers, sons, daughters, fathers and relatives of the dead soldiers during the First World War. Everyone who lost a dear person of his or her life feels the necessity to commemorate him or her on a grave where his or her body lied. For the mother who lost their sons in the War was a torture not to have a tomb where cry her sons, but the same feelings were experienced by the father, the soldier’s sisters, grandmothers and grandfathers, sons who lost their fathers or wives who lost their husbands in the terrible conflict.

The realisation of the monument to commemorate everyone fought in the Grate War and, in particular, who died in this horrible conflict.

There was, also, a political and national reason for the realisation of the Unknown Soldier’s monument. After the end of the Great War Italian people were devastated from the loss of their relatives, the pain, the transfer to their homeland to another one to escape the War and other reasons. The political men wanted to unify the Italian people after the War and they thought was appropriate spread the private cult of the dead soldiers in a common cult. This was the way to unify all the Italian people under a common pain and commemorate all together the dead soldiers who sacrificed their lives for their Country and families.

Another reason of the construction of the Unknown soldier’s monument was to commemorate the honour that the soldiers had in War and to pay their sacrifice for the Country.