The Museum exhibits weapons, uniforms, relics and local history documents relating to the First World War and is inserted in the complex of the local military shrine. The shrine, in the shape of an arcaded exedra, was designed by Pietro del Fabbro to house the remains of 10,541 fallen from the First World War.
The first monument to the “Heroes of the Piave” was built in 1919 by Alterige Giorgi from Carrara. It included four marble bas-reliefs by the Trieste sculptor M. Mascherini inspired by the episodes of the war: 24 May 1915 “Italy’s entry into the war” – 24 October 1917 “The enemy barbarism on the soil of the Fatherland” – 15 June 1918 you do not pass ”- November 3, 1918“ Triumph of Italian arms ”.
In 1935 the original monument was enclosed in the center of the large exedra of the Military Memorial of Fagarè built to a design by the architect P. Del Fabbro, and was later removed in 1942. The four bas-reliefs, hidden from the population, and put back in their present position in 1942, on the side facades of the forepart of the exedra, escaped the destruction ordered by the German officers.
The King of Italy and Achille Starace intervened at the inauguration of the Memorial in 1933.
The side aisles of the monument contain the bodies of 5191 soldiers and 5350 unknown soldiers who died in the First World War. There are also the two gold medals Lt. Col. E.Paselli and Maj. F. Mignone. Five other gold medals, whose bodies have not been recognized, are named in an inscription. Lieutenant Edward McKey, an officer of the American Red Cross and a personal friend of the writer Ernest Hemingway, is also buried in the shrine. In memory of him, Hemingway wrote a poem whose text, sculpted in iron by the sculptor Simon Benetton, is visible in the central chapel of the monument.
A large plaque in the central chapel lists the 27 soldiers decorated with a gold medal for Military Valor who fell on the Piave in the sector of the III Army.
In the garden of the monument are preserved the fragments of the wall on which unknown wrote, during the Battle of the Solstice (15-24 June 1918), the two famous phrases “It is better to live a day as a lion than a hundred years as a sheep” and ” All heroes. Either the Piave or all coupled “. The marble stone of the flag bearer, in the center of the garden, recalls the fallen of World War II. Inside the monument you can visit a small museum, also built with numerous donations from veterans, containing uniforms, weapons, ammunition and documents.
It is currently the site of recurring commemorations on the dates of April 25 and November 4.
TIMETABLES
It can be visited every day except Mondays from 9-12 and 15-18.
Via Postumia Est, 89 – Fagarè, 31048 – S.Biagio di Callalta (TV)
