Futa Pass Cemetery on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
The German Futa Pass Cemetery (; ) is Italy's largest war cemetery. According to the
The pass was part of the LEGGE 12 agosto 1957, n. 801: Ratifica ed esecuzione dell’Accordo tra la Repubblica italiana e la Repubblica Federale di Germania sulle tombe di guerra con annessi scambi di Note, concluso in Bonn il 22 dicembre 1955
Retrieved 16 March 2014 (ital.) in 1959 the German War Graves Commission entrusted oversight of the project to the architect Dieter Oesterlen. In the planning and execution he was assisted by the
Retrieved 16 March 2014 and a number of remains were also identified. With 30,683 graves it is the largest German cemetery in Italy.
File:FirenzuolaSoldatenfriedhofFutapassEingang.JPG, Entrance
File:FirenzuolaSoldatenfriedhofFutapassMonumentInside1.JPG, Memorial wall of the crypt
File:FirenzuolaSoldatenfriedhofFutapassMonumentInside2.JPG, ''Cervia-Raum'' or small crypt
Online version at academia.edu
Abstract of Urmson monograph
at RIHA Journal
Cimitero militare germanico
at architetturatoscana.it (in Italian)
(in German) {{coord, 44.096125, 11.272047, region:IT-FI_type:landmark, display=title German War Graves Commission War cemeteries in Italy Buildings and structures in Tuscany Buildings and structures completed in 1969
The German Futa Pass Cemetery (; ) is Italy's largest war cemetery. According to the German War Graves Commission
The German War Graves Commission ( in German) is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of German war graves in Europe and North Africa. Its objectives are acquisition, maintenance and care of German war graves; tending to next of kin; youth ...
it holds remains of 30,800 German soldiers who died in the Second World War. It is located at the summit of the Futa Pass (', 903 m) in the Apennines
The Apennines or Apennine Mountains (; grc-gre, links=no, Ἀπέννινα ὄρη or Ἀπέννινον ὄρος; la, Appenninus or – a singular with plural meaning;''Apenninus'' (Greek or ) has the form of an adjective, which wou ...
and in Mugello, near Traversa in the commune of Firenzuola, that is, about 40 kilometers north of Florence and 40 kilometers south of Bologna along National Highway Nr. 65 near the border of Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna.
History
The pass was part of the Gothic Line
The Gothic Line (german: Gotenstellung; it, Linea Gotica) was a German Defense line, defensive line of the Italian Campaign (World War II), Italian Campaign of World War II. It formed Generalfeldmarschall, Field Marshal Albert Kesselring's la ...
, meant to stop the Allied advance. It was the site of bitter combat between 9 and 21 April 1945, but most of the interred fell in late August 1944 between Carrara on the Ligurian Sea and the area surrounding Rimini.
In the wake of the 22 December 1955 Accord on War Graves between the BRD & Italy signed in Bonn and ratified by the Italian legislature 12 August 1957 as Law 801,Retrieved 16 March 2014 (ital.) in 1959 the German War Graves Commission entrusted oversight of the project to the architect Dieter Oesterlen. In the planning and execution he was assisted by the
landscape architect
A landscape architect is a person who is educated in the field of landscape architecture. The practice of landscape architecture includes: site analysis, site inventory, site planning, land planning, planting design, grading, storm water manageme ...
s Walter Rossow
Walter Rossow (28 January 1910 - 2 January 1992) was a leading German Landscape architect and, during his later years, a university professor. After 1945, together with leading architects of the time such as Egon Eiermann and Paul Baumgarten, W ...
and Ernst Cramer and the sculptor . The metalwork was by Fritz Kühn.Francesco Collotti: ''Il paesaggio dei caduti. Dieter Oesterlen, Cimitero militare germanico.''
The reburied soldiers were collected from neighboring battlefields and churchyard
In Christian countries a churchyard is a patch of land adjoining or surrounding a church, which is usually owned by the relevant church or local parish itself. In the Scots language and in both Scottish English and Ulster-Scots, this can also ...
s in the provinces of Bologna, Metropolitan Florence, Forlì-Cesena, Lucca, Modena
Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...
, Pesaro and Urbino
The Province of Pesaro and Urbino ( it, Provincia di Pesaro e Urbino, ) is a province in the Marche region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Pesaro. It also borders the state of San Marino. The province is surrounded by San Marino and Emilia ...
, Pisa
Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the cit ...
, Pistoia
Pistoia (, is a city and ''comune'' in the Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of a province of the same name, located about west and north of Florence and is crossed by the Ombrone Pistoiese, a tributary of the River Arno. It is a typi ...
, Ravenna and Reggio Emilia
Reggio nell'Emilia ( egl, Rèz; la, Regium Lepidi), usually referred to as Reggio Emilia, or simply Reggio by its inhabitants, and known until 1861 as Reggio di Lombardia, is a city in northern Italy, in the Emilia-Romagna region. It has abou ...
;volksbund.de zum Futa-PassRetrieved 16 March 2014 and a number of remains were also identified. With 30,683 graves it is the largest German cemetery in Italy.
Cemetery and Monument
The cemetery covers 12 hectaresarchitetturatoscana.it with 16,000 graniteheadstone
A headstone, tombstone, or gravestone is a stele or marker, usually stone, that is placed over a grave. It is traditional for burials in the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim religions, among others. In most cases, it has the deceased's name, da ...
s on 72 natural lawns, enclosed by a spiral 2000 meter long wall with 67 quarried
A quarry is a type of open-pit mining, open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock (geology), rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some juri ...
crosses. Each pair of graves is marked with a 70×140 cm stone. The cemetery is capped by the pyramid-like peak at the end of the spiral wall. This last section of the wall encloses a "Court of Honor", beneath which is the crypt
A crypt (from Latin ''crypta'' "vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, sarcophagi, or religious relics.
Originally, crypts were typically found below the main apse of a chur ...
with 397 graves. A smaller crypt, named the "Cervia Room", contains gravestones from the former war cemetery at Cervia
Cervia ( rgn, Zirvia) is a seaside resort town in the province of Ravenna, located in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna.
Cervia is a major seaside resort in Emilia-Romagna, North Italy. Its population was 28,700 at the 2018 census.
...
. The cemetery was dedicated on 28 June 1969.
Gallery
Bibliography
*Birgit Urmson: ''German and United States Second World War Military Cemeteries in Italy: Cultural Perspectives'' (Transatlantic Aesthetics and Culture Vol. 8) (Bern 2018, pb.) * Francesco Collotti: ''Il paesaggio dei caduti. Dieter Oesterlen, Cimitero militare germanico.''Online version at academia.edu
References
External links
*Abstract of Urmson monograph
at RIHA Journal
Cimitero militare germanico
at architetturatoscana.it (in Italian)
(in German) {{coord, 44.096125, 11.272047, region:IT-FI_type:landmark, display=title German War Graves Commission War cemeteries in Italy Buildings and structures in Tuscany Buildings and structures completed in 1969