Today, the 4th of November, is the Giornata delle Forze Armate e dell’Unità Nazionale (Army Forces and National Unification Day). It commemorates the end of the First World War and the unification of Trentino Alto Adige and Friuli Venezia Giulia in the North East of Italy, which were previously under Austrian dominion, with the Regno d’Italia (Italian Kingdom).

A Special Journey

This year, as part of the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy, a special commemorative event has been organised which replicates the journey by train of a coffin bearing the remains of the Unknown Soldier. The original journey began in Aquileia on the 29th of November 1921 and ended in Roma four days later on the 2nd. The journey was a collective rite, a mass funeral, with stops being made in 120 towns and villages. At each stop, local officials and citizens filled the carriages with wreaths before the gaze of the kneeling crowd.

When the train arrived at Roma Termini station on the 2nd of November it was met by King Vittorio Emanuele III and his family. The coffin was transported on a gun carriage to la basilica di Santa Maria degli Angeli where the funeral rites where celebrated. Two days later on the 4th of November at 10.30 in the morning the Unknown Soldier was placed in a crypt beneath the statue of the Goddess Roma. The king placed a gold medal on the coffin, and the marble slab was lowered to seal the tomb. The tomb of the Unknown Soldier represents the 650 thousand Italian soldiers who died during the First World War.

How the Unknown Soldier was chosen

Antonio Bergamas was a volontario irredento (unredeemed volunteer –  one of the soldiers who wanted Trento and Trieste to be liberated from Austro-Hungarian domination and united with Italy), who deserted from the Austrian army to join the Italians and fight against the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He fell in combat in 1915, and like many others, his remains where never identified. Six years after his death, his mother Maria was asked to stand before the coffins of eleven unidentified soldiers, and to ‘adopt’ one as her son. Maria stood for a while in front of the eleven coffins before removing her black shawl and laying it on the second one. Then, instead of leaving the room, Maria began to apologise to the other ten soldiers for not having chosen them. When she arrived at the last coffin she collapsed with emotion. The body of Maria Bergamas, who died in 1954, now rests alongside the bodies of those ten unknown soldiers in the Aquileia war cemetery.

The Commemorative Journey

This year’s journey followed the same route that was taken in 1921. The train consisted of three cars hosting an exhibition, a fourth set as a projection room for films, and another reproducing the carriage that carried the coffin, containing a vintage gun carriage and a glass case in which was displayed the Italian flag used in the original journey. At all the stations visited this year, the train was met by large numbers of people, turning out to be a very emotional event.

Above: The final resting place of the Milite Ignoto (Unknown Soldier) in Rome.