Remembrance Park

The Remembrance Park and War Memorial, dedicated to Mondolfo’s fallen, were created by unanimous will of the townsfolk and municipal authorities. As early as 1919, the town’s authorities had already budgeted sums for engraving a stone monument to the fallen, when a specifically established committee eventually announced the decision to create a monument with the relative park.

The monument was erected with sums donated by the inhabitants and contributions by the Municipality, while the initiative was spearheaded by Claudina Roscetti (the widow of Bramucci, who died during the war), who at the time headed the local office of the Italian National Association of War Mothers and Widows. She was aided by Gino Moscatelli, a locally well-known figure, alongside other tireless collaborators. While the committee commissioned the work to a renowned sculptor from Perugia, Torquato Tamagnini (1886-1965), the municipal authorities entrusted the surveyor Alfredo Trenti to construct the Remembrance Park by redesigning the area once occupied by the ‘Augustinian Gardens’, in front of the popular field used for playing pallone col bracciale. The idea of creating parks of this kind in Italy, in which each tree commemorates a fallen soldier of the First World War, initiated with Dario Lupi, the former Under Secretary for Education, who was inspired by similar examples in Canada, and was soon met with widespread approval. By having school children plant the various trees, the pupils would have the sacrifice of their fellow citizens—offered for the definitive reunification of Italy—indelibly stamped on their memory. Trenti, who drew his inspiration from the monumental architecture of the period, followed the guidelines of the Town Council and created a double access stairway to the park, while placing the monument in the centre. In the background, he arranged 77 Mediterranean oak trees— one for every soldier from Mondolfo who died in WW1—in a semicircle as if they were symbolically embracing the foot soldier in the centre, who clutches an Italian flag and stands atop a rocky mass erected with rocks from the Carso region. The Remembrance Park and War Memorial were solemnly inaugurated on 15th August 1926, surrounded by flower beds and with the star (symbol of the Italian State) placed in the centre. In 1927, junior school pupils created the Guard of Honour for the monument, while in 1928, the eternal flame was added.