User:Deliso mary/Overseas War Memorial

Open since 10 December 1967, commissioned by the Ministry of Defence, designed by Arch. Ing. Col. Paolo Caccia Dominioni, the military shrine of the fallen overseas, is located in Bari, in via Gentile in the Japigia district. The structure houses the remains of about 75,000 Italian soldiers who fell in foreign lands, in the years ranging from 1940 to 1945, brought back to their homeland following the disposal of the war cemeteries, built at the time in foreign territories.

Story
The complex not only houses the remains of the military, 40,000 of whom are unknown, but it is also home to the museum of war memorabilia, belonging precisely to the Italian troops of that period.

The remains come from the territories where Italian troops operated during the first and second world wars: the Balkans, North and East Africa, the Mediterranean. The remains of soldiers and civilians who died in concentration or labor camps in the former German Democratic Republic have also recently been arranged.

Currently the shrine is also the site of commemorative ceremonies: among the main ones, on 25 April and 4 November. Among the authorities present, the President of the Republic was also invited.

Characteristics
The work, built in Trani stone, is surrounded by a large park and is divided into two floors: the ground floor and the mezzanine floor, which can be accessed via the large central staircase. The shrine of Bari is the second largest in Italy, after that of Redipuglia.

The ground floor and the historical museum
The garden is used as a park of remembrances, in which some ancient combat vehicles, pieces of artillery, tombstones and statues dedicated to deceased soldiers are placed along the entire perimeter. The entrance to the sacred area is delimited by chains and the anchor of the Orsa ship.

On the sides of the park, two elements that characterized the abandoned military shrine of Tripoli, built at the end of the 1950s, have been reconstructed:


 * on the left, a section of the Roman aqueduct with seven arches, where the larger central arch represented the entrance to the Shrine of Tripoli;
 * to the right of the park, there are the arches of the battles, where the main battles fought in Africa from 1911 to 1943 are commemorated with eight plaques.

To the right of the staircase, on special supports, is the bell donated by bodies and associations of Bari and Puglia, whose nine solemn tolls at sunset commemorate the fallen. The phrase Victi vivimus is carved in the bronze of the bell, that is, we live even when we are defeated.

Also to the right of the park is the historical museum, which reconstructs the various phases of the wars fought and which houses uniforms, photographs, weapons, documents and private relics that belonged to the armed forces of the period. In particular, the following wars are reported:


 * 1940-43 Northern Africa
 * defense of naval traffic with North Africa
 * 1940-41 East Africa
 * naval warfare 1940-43
 * Greece and Albania 1940-45
 * participation of forces on the Soviet front 1941-43
 * Italian armed resistance 1943-45
 * war in Ethiopia 1935-36
 * conquest of Eritrea 1882-1900
 * conquest of Somalia 1891-1931
 * conquest of Libya 1911-31
 * air warfare 1940-45

The re-enactment is supplemented by the projection of documentaries and films of the time, in the special projection room with 72 seats.

Also on the ground floor is the crypt, corresponding to the center of the central cloister, used as a small chapel. On the walls there are various plaques commemorating the names of the fallen, ascertained but not identified. A particular plaque is dedicated to the 140 Ascari, Eritrean and Libyan faithful, whose remains were transferred to Italy in 1972. On the walls that enclose the tombs of the 45,000 unknown soldiers, the Latin epigraph Et nomen cum sanguine pro Patria dedimus is reported, which the name we dedicated to the homeland also translates as Together with the blood.

Finally, next to the museum, there is the liturgical hall, a meeting place for Eucharistic celebrations and prayers available to the public. In the rear part, management and secretarial offices complete the ground floor structure.

The mezzanine floor
On the mezzanine floor, the remains of the military are found, precisely in the central cloister. To the right of the entrance is the Roll of Honor, where there are four bronze cabinets, which contain the volumes with names in alphabetical order, of the fallen located in the Shrine.

At the center of the courtyard there is a marble an altar for Holy Mass outdoors and behind it stands a 25-metre column with four crosses, one for each cardinal point.

Fallen
In the cloister there are the epigraphs: "Their bodies are buried in peace and the memory will live forever", "They obtained the kingdom of glory and the hand of the Lord protects them". The niches, in which the fallen rest arranged in alphabetical order, are sealed with a bronze plate bearing the name, rank and any rewards for military valor.

They are grouped into sectors:


 * Germany
 * former Yugoslavia (1940-45)
 * Greece and Albania (1940-45)
 * Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria (1940-45)
 * North Africa and Libya (1911-39 and 1940-43) and men of the crew of the submarine Scirè
 * East Africa
 * Albania (1915-18)

Related items

 * Milite Ignoto (Italia)
 * Memoriali della prima guerra mondiale
 * Seconda guerra mondiale