The Ossuary of Oslavia

The Ossuary of Oslavia was built in 1938 in correspondence of the Quota 153 of Mount Calvario on a project by the Roman architect Ghino Venturi. The complex was wanted by the fascist regime to collect the remains of the soldiers who died in the various battles of the Great War fought in the area of Gorizia and Tolmino (today in Slovenia). The Ossuary covers a triangular area and is formed by four towers, one for each vertex of the figure plus a central one. Each of these houses the burial niches of the identified dead, arranged along the walls, for a total of about 20 thousand names, including 138 Austro-Hungarians. The other 37,000 unidentified bodies (539 of non-Italian nationality) are instead buried in three large ossuaries placed in the centre of the three lateral towers. All the towers are also connected by underground tunnels and have crypts. The most important is the central one, where there are the tombs of thirteen men decorated with the Gold Medal for Military Valour, including General Achille Papa, who died on 5th October 1917, General Ferruccio Trombi, shot dead at Oslavia on 28th November 1915 and General Alceo Catalocchino, killed in the Natisone Valleys on 27th August 1917. In the main tower there is also a big cross made of dark marble while outside, near the left vertex of the Ossuary, there is a bell called "Chiara" that rings every day at sunset in honour of the fallen soldiers. In this regard, it is possible to attend the commemoration of the taking of Gorizia by the Italian Army, an event that takes place every year on 8th August.