Every year, the June 2ndThe President of the Republic Visit theAltar of the homeland of Rome to pay homage to the figure of Unknown soldier, An unidentified soldier who fell in the First World War: also this year, on the occasion of the Republic Day, the president Sergio Mattarella (which is also Head of the armed forces) will go to the altar of the homeland at 09:15 to lay a crown of flowers on the tomb of the unknown soldier, accompanied by some of the most important positions of the state, including the Minister of Defense Guido Crosetto.
Who was the unknown soldier?
But who is This unknown soldier And above all, because his tomb is Like this important? His figure is, clearly, of the type symbolic: it is the body of a military, whose identity is still unknownchosen in 1921 to represent all Italian soldiers who fell during the First World War e never identified. Having remained anonymous, in fact, these soldiers have never received a worthy burial: hence the idea of creating a monument that guaranteed a burial, albeit symbolic, to collective sacrifice. The identity of the unknown soldier, therefore, was born to stay voluntarily unknown: This is why, over 100 years after the construction of the unknown milite tomb, reliefs or analysis on the body have never been carried out, despite the new technological tools could in fact help in identifying the body.
The history of the unknown soldier: the idea of Colonel Douhet
To advance the idea of a tomb dedicated to an unidentified soldier who fell in the First World War was, specifically, the Colonel Giulio Douhetwhich in August 1920 proposed to honor the body of a soldier who represented “the son and brother of all those who they died to defend the homeland». Moreover, the First World War had ended for less than two years: the memory of the Battle of the Piave of June 1918(then renamed “battle of the solstice” from Gabriele D’Annunzio), during which the Italian army managed to stop theAustro -Hungarian advancepreventing enemies from crossing the natural border created by the river and averse the defeat of Caporetto of 1917. The clash, however, was a lot violentwith about 90 000 soldiers Italian Italians.
The proposal ended up opening a large debate, which ended with the first bill presented to Parliament on July 28, 1921 by the deputy Cesare Maria De Vecchiformer fighter. In less than a month the law was approved by the Chamber and Senate, and then be promulgated on 11 August 1921. The law established that on November 4, anniversary of the victory of Italy in the First World War, The body of an unknown soldier should have been buried at the altar of the homeland, with a tomb inserted inside the complex of Victorianone of the most impressive monuments in Rome, built in 1878 in memory of the king Vittorio Emanuele IIfirst king of Italy.
How the unknown soldier and the role of Maria Bergamas was chosen on the choice of body
But how choose the body of the Unknown soldier? The then Minister of War, Luigi Gasparottoordered the creation of a special military commission in charge of researching and re -humoring 11 corpses of unknown Italian soldiers, one for each battlefield existing along the 700 kilometers of the former Italian front. The procedure should have taken place in one way specific: the bodies should have been exhumed by isolated tombs or, if not possible, from war cemeteries; The selected corpses should not have possessed No distinctive element able to reconnect the soldier to his identity or to the belonging department and, above all, no one should have known the place of exhumationto prevent the origin of the body from bringing back to the place of the battle that the life of the soldier had cost.
Once the 11 bodies have been selected, the Commission decided to entrust the choice of the body of the soldier unknown to one of the mothers who had lost a child during the First World War, representing all those who had seen their children leave for the forehead without these they returned. The assignment was entrusted to Maria Bergamasmother of the soldier Antonio Bergamas, who in 1915 had deserted the Austrian army To voluntarily enlist in the Italian one with the fictitious name of Antonio Bontempelli. Died in 1916, the military was declared dispersed Following a bomb that destroyed the cemetery where he had been buried. On October 28, 1921 Maria Bergamas chose the penultimate coffin between 11 select and place in line in front of the Basilica of Aquileia (UD), first shouting the name of the son and then kneel For hug the coffin.
The identity of the unknown soldier, therefore, was born with the aim of remain voluntarily anonymousas the term itself delights well: that’s why, over 100 years after the burial, surveys or analysis on the body have never been carried out, despite the new technological tools that could have helped in identifying the body.
The journey to Rome and the burial at the altar of the homeland
After being chosen, the unknown milite coffin It was positioned on a specially designed and loaded chariot aboard a special convoy directed to Rome.
It wanted 4 days and about 120 stops In order to reach the capital from Aquileia (UD), where the body selection ceremony took place. Arrived in Rome the November 2ndthe body of the unknown soldier was welcomed by King Vittorio Emanuele III, together with some civil and military authorities. The November 4, 1921third anniversary of the victory of the Great War, the tomb was wrapped in the tricolor and loaded, together with a infantry helmet and a rifle, on a horse -drawn cart in the direction of Piazza Veneziawhere the Victorian monument arises. Since then one guard of honorprovided by the Ministry of Defense, supervises day and night The tomb of the unknown soldier.
