Obj. ID: 52099  Fosse Ardeatine Mausoleum Complex in Rome, Italy - Entrance Court

Description

Passing through the gate one enters an open space sufficient for hosting large gatherings for ceremonies, where each year on the anniversary of the massacre the name of each victim is read aloud

Opposite the entrance is the entrance to the caves. The cliff face has been consolidated with retaining walls of pozzolana stone like that of the entrance wall.  This creates a façade for the site of martyrdom. At the summit of the cliff is a green space with trees and shrubs. Set near the edge of this, at the top of the natural façade is a metal Magen David on one side and a metal cross on a stone base on the other. To the left and up a hill is the mausoleum, which is usually entered after taking a route through the caves.

Attached to the retaining wall are several inscribed concrete plaques of various sizes. Only one of these, a large horizontal plaque, bears text directly relevant to the massacre that happened here. This powerful text is written in the voice of the dead, beseeching the living passersby to remember what happened here, and to take pride in the struggle for freedom.

Inscriptions

Large plaque on the exterior wall of the caves (Italian)

VIATORI ASSETATI DI LIBERTA
FUMMO A CASO RASTRELLATI
NELLE STRADE E NEL CARCERE
PER RAPPRESAGLIA
GATTATI IN MASSA
TRUCIDATI MURATI IN QUESTE FOSSE
ITALIANI NON IMPRECATE
MAMME SPOSE NON PIANGETE
FIGLI PORTATE CON FIEREZZA
IL RICORDO
DELL’ OLOCAUSTO DEI PADRI
SE LO SCEMPIO SU DI NOI CONSUMATO
SARA SERVITO AL DI LA’ DELLE VEDETTA
A CONSACRARE IL DIRITTO DELL’UMANA ESISTENZA
CONTRO IL CRIMINE DELL’ASSASSINIO

Translation: Travelers thirst for freedom, / We were picked up at random / On the streets and in the prison, / For reprisal, / Thrown altogether, / Killed [and] walled in these caves. / Italians do not curse, / Mothers, brides, do not cry, / Children, carry the memory / of the Holocaust of your fathers with pride. / If our slaughter would serve beyond revenge, / It is to consecrate the right of human existence. / Against the crime of murder.

At the entrance to the caves (Italian)

DIETRO QUESTA LAPIDE E CUSTODITA L’URNA CON LA
TERRA SACRA DELLA BARBARICA STRAGE NAZISTA DI
MARZABOTTO – SETTEMBRE MCMXLIV

SPQR XXIV-III-MCMLXV  AN-FIM
XXI ANNUALE DELL ECCIDIO ARDEANTINO

Translation: Behind this stone is the urn with the sacred earth of the barbaric Nazi massacre of Marzabotto –September MCMXLIV / SPQR March 24, 1965, the 21st anniversary of the Ardeatine massacre