Qualla: Redipuglia War Memorial

Redipuglia War Memorial: Introduction

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Johann Jaritz, Public domain. The word repeats across twenty-two terraces of stone, carved above the names of the dead: Presente. Present. It is the Italian military roll call for the fallen, an answer given on behalf of those who can no longer speak. At Redipuglia, on the rocky Karst Plateau near Fogliano Redipuglia in northeastern Italy, this single word is inscribed thousands of times, once for each of the 39,857 identified soldiers whose remains rest in the stepped platforms of the largest war memorial in Italy. Above the last terrace, two mass graves hold another 60,330 unknown soldiers. The total: 100,187 dead from the twelve battles fought along the Isonzo front between 1915 and 1917.

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Image: Johann Jaritz | Public domain

Redipuglia War Memorial: Blood on the Karst

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Snowdog, Public domain. The memorial stands on Monte Sei Busi, one of the countless rocky hills of the Karst Plateau whose possession was fought over with terrible intensity during the early battles of the Isonzo. Italian forces attacked Monte Sei Busi in the First and Second Battles of the Isonzo, fina...

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Image: Snowdog | Public domain

Redipuglia War Memorial: A Monument Built on Ambiguity

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Snowdog, Public domain. The shrine was designed by architect Giovanni Greppi and built between 1935 and 1938. It was inaugurated on September 18, 1938, in the presence of Benito Mussolini and over 50,000 veterans who had fought on the Isonzo front. The timing and the patron complicate the memorial's mea...

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Image: Snowdog | Public domain

Redipuglia War Memorial: The Ones Who Were Not Soldiers

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Roberto Ferrari from Campogalliano (Modena), Italy, CC BY-SA 2.0. Among the 100,187 interred at Redipuglia, most were Army soldiers. But the memorial also holds 56 members of the Guardia di Finanza, Italy's fiscal police who served in combat roles, and 72 sailors, the crews of the submarines Medusa and Jalea, sunk in the Adriatic in 1915 and sa...

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Image: Roberto Ferrari from Campogalliano (Modena), Italy | CC BY-SA 2.0

Redipuglia War Memorial: Remembrance Without End

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Snowdog, Public domain. Every November 4, the President of the Italian Senate presides over a commemoration at Redipuglia, marking the anniversary of Italy's armistice with Austria-Hungary in 1918. The hill opposite the memorial, the Colle di Sant'Elia, has been transformed into a park of remembrance, w...

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Image: Snowdog | Public domain