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Tracce del mito “fascista” di Roma a Gorizia: due monumenti
Testa, Antonella
2021
Abstract
Two less known monuments in Gorizia are perfect examples of how the idea of Italianness, based on the myth of Ancient Rome, was used to justify the redemption of Gorizia, seized from Austria thanks to its “Italic virtues”. Even after the fall of Fascism, the refugees from Pola, who found hospitality and full integration into the city of Gorizia, continued to claim the Italian character of Istria for decades. On the War Memorial of the Sixth Battle on the Isonzo (4-7 August 1916), inaugurated in 1942, there was a sentence (later abraded) taken from Mussolini’s war diary which emphasizes the natural continuity between Ancient Rome and the Italy of the time. A Roman military emblem and a fascis of the Roman lictors reveal how the idea of this continuity, already exploited in prewar times, was used during and after the First World War to later become part of the enormous and all-pervading fascist propaganda machine. A replica of the statue of Augustus in Prima Porta was given to the city of Pola by Mussolini in 1935 to reassert its Italian character. In 1955 the statue arrived in Gorizia, together with thousands of Istrian refugees in the huge exodus beginning in 1947. The Roman statue, initially a symbol of Istria’s hope to being Italian once again, gradually came to express something more general, that is, for young people to understand the importance of history.
Due monumenti poco noti di Gorizia esemplificano con chiarezza come la retorica di un’italianità fondata sul mito di Roma antica abbia giustificato la redenzione della città, strappata all’Austria grazie alle sue “virtù italiche”. Tale retorica ha continuato a operare per decenni anche dopo la caduta del Fascismo, nelle rivendicazioni dell’italianità dell’Istria da parte degli esuli di Pola ospitati in città e lì pienamente integrati. Il “Monumento ai Caduti della Sesta Battaglia sull’Isonzo (4-7 agosto 1916)”, inaugurato nel 1942, riporta una frase tratta dal Diario di guerra di Mussolini, ora erasa, che sottolinea la naturale continuità fra Roma antica e la nuova realtà italiana. Un’insegna militare romana e un fascio littorio evidenziano come la retorica della romanità, sfruttata già nel periodo pre-bellico, sia stata utilizzata durante e dopo la Grande Guerra per sfociare nell’enorme e capillare apparato propagandistico fascista. Nel 1955 approda a Gorizia la copia dell’Augusto di Prima Porta donato da Mussolini alla città di Pola nel 1935, per ribadirne l’italianità e da lì partito insieme a migliaia di profughi, nel grande esodo del 1947. Il significato della statua romana viene a mutare gradualmente, con il modificarsi delle circostanze storiche: da simbolo della speranza del ritorno in un’Istria nuovamente italiana a generico monito ai giovani ad interessarsi alla storia.
Two less known monuments in Gorizia are perfect examples of how the idea of Italianness, based on the myth of Ancient Rome, was used to justify the redemption of Gorizia, seized from Austria thanks to its “Italic virtues”. Even after the fall of Fascism, the refugees from Pola, who found hospitality and full integration into the city of Gorizia, continued to claim the Italian character of Istria for decades. On the War Memorial of the Sixth Battle on the Isonzo (4-7 August 1916), inaugurated in 1942, there was a sentence (later abraded) taken from Mussolini’s war diary which emphasizes the natural continuity between Ancient Rome and the Italy of the time. A Roman military emblem and a fascis of the Roman lictors reveal how the idea of this continuity, already exploited in prewar times, was used during and after the First World War to later become part of the enormous and all-pervading fascist propaganda machine. A replica of the statue of Augustus in Prima Porta was given to the city of Pola by Mussolini in 1935 to reassert its Italian character. In 1955 the statue arrived in Gorizia, together with thousands of Istrian refugees in the huge exodus beginning in 1947. The Roman statue, initially a symbol of Istria’s hope to being Italian once again, gradually came to express something more general, that is, for young people to understand the importance of history.
Journal
Source
Antonella Testa, ''Tracce del mito “fascista” di Roma a Gorizia: due monumenti'', in: ''Aquileia Nostra'', 92 (2021), pp. 15-24
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it
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
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