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For the self-perception of the Kingdom of Italy, founded as late as 1861, the soldiers killed in action during WW I played a particular role. The war memorials built for them along the front between the Stelvio Pass and the Isonzo River, the frontier to the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, are a case in point. After their seizure of power in 1922, the Italian fascists radically converted the memorial culture from the mourning of the dead to their celebration as fascist martyrs. New war memorials were built, now rather driven by the ideas of heroism and sacrifice for the nation – and for future wars. These new war memorials were also erected in regions where no fighting had taken place during WW I, as in South Tyrol, at the Brenner or the Reschen Pass. This was a clear indication of their function as an instrument for political propaganda.

This paper focuses on Italy’s Fascist ossuaries of the First World War. It is intended to show how a methodology that uses images and texts can expose the political purposes that underpinned the creation of the ossuaries, to contribute to the literature on the commemoration of fallen soldiers, and to advance the study of war monuments as expressions of political forces. The paper also represents an attempt to bridge between different approaches to the study of war monuments that have emerged in history and in visual studies. It examines Italian ossuaries of the Great War as both objects and symbols, or as aesthetic configurations and carriers of political meanings. Physical characteristics, such as those associated with context, space and style, are shown to express elements of Fascist ideology relating, for instance, to hierarchy, victory and power.