The Revival of Memory: Gardens and Avenues of Remembrance. Early Results of a Research in Abruzzo

Abstract

The forthcoming centenary of the Great War (1914-1918) can be considered an important occasion to focus attention on the subject of memorials for the fallen in the War. Immediately after the War, this topic was considered so relevant that in each municipality of Italy, Gardens and Avenues of Remembrance were realized and soon became places of memory, characterized by strong values of identity, history and landscape. In these places, usually correspondent to the number of fallen in that neighbourhood and located in urban or peripheral areas,

nature and anthropic elements coexisted. For their importance, from 1926 these places have been included among the National Monuments. After the Second World War, avenues and gardens, as well as toponyms, were gradually forgotten and, in many cases, radically transformed. Due to a form of damnatio memoriae, which locations considered symbols of past governments have had to pay, these places have been changed, radically transforming also their authentic significance.

A century on, it is important to start a programme for protection and enhancement of this historic heritage (classification at a regional and national scale, measurements, archival research, definition of guide lines for conservation). The essay also describes the early results of the classification of Gardens and Avenues of Remembrance in Abruzzo.