A slab of marble set in the outside wall of what is now a bank, carrying in twenty lines the career of a general born in the town in 1868: Adwa, Africa, the Isonzo, the Piave. No published source describes the plaque. Its text is transcribed here.
At a glance
What is documented and what is not. Gherardo Pantano is a documented figure: Treccani records his birth at Oderzo in 1868 and his death at Montecatini Terme in 1937, his capture at Adwa, his later expeditions, Libya and the First World War. The plaque itself is another matter: we have found no published source that describes it, dates it or names who had it cut — not in the heritage catalogues, not in the memorial databases. What follows is therefore in two parts, kept apart: the text, read from the photograph, and the life, from Treccani. The plaque is set in the outside wall of the building at the address below, today a bank branch.
Key facts
- Subject: Gherardo Pantano, 1868–1937, lieutenant general, born in Oderzo
- Where: set in the external wall of a building in Oderzo, now a bank branch
- Material: white marble, in a moulded frame
- Date: not documented — the inscription records a death in 1937 and dates it «XV» in the Fascist era, so it was cut in or after that year
- Who commissioned it: not documented; the inscription says «i concittadini», his fellow townspeople
- GPS: 45.7807, 12.4932 · Open in Google Maps (OpenStreetMap)
The man, from the record
Treccani gives the outline. Gherardo Pantano was born at Oderzo, in the province of Treviso, in 1868. He fought in the Ethiopian war of 1895–96 and was taken prisoner at Adwa; released in 1898, he made expeditions towards Sudan and into the Dancalia. He took part in the conquest of Libya in 1913. In the First World War he fought at Montecucco and on the Bainsizza. He died at Montecatini Terme in 1937, and in 1932 he had published a memoir of his African years, Ventitré anni di vita africana.
The inscription, as it reads
The text is cut in capitals, without punctuation, in the manner of the period. Transcribed from the photograph, it runs:
- Generale di Corpo d’Armata
- GHERARDO PANTANO
- qui nato il 21 gennaio 1868
- visse bersagliere operò da eroe
- a Coatit 14-1-1895 a Debra Aila 9-10-1895 ad Adua 1-3-1896
- per tre volte conquistò l’azzurro segno del valore
- nell’Eritrea in Somalia in Libia
- capo e maestro
- sull’Isonzo guidò la brigata Udine alla vittoria
- … della Bainsizza
- lottando portò la 44ª divisione invitta al Piave
- alla testa della 14ª divisione
- liberò nel dicembre 1917 l’ansa di Zenson
- stroncò nello splendente giugno 1918
- l’impeto nemico alla Valbella
- due volte insignito dell’Ordine Militare di Savoia
- raggiungeva i compagni caduti sul campo della gloria
- il 17 agosto 1937 – XV
- i concittadini queste epiche gesta
- tolgono dalla storia e incidono nel marmo
- imperitura gloria del passato
- altissimo insegnamento per l’avvenire
One line is worn and cannot be read with confidence from the photograph. Where the inscription and Treccani differ, both are left standing: the plaque gives 21 January 1868 as the birth date and 17 August 1937 as the death, where Treccani gives only the years; the plaque names Eritrea, Somalia and Libya, where Treccani names the Ethiopian war, the Dancalia and Libya.
What the plaque is, as a document
It is a monument of the later 1930s and reads like one. The phrasing is the heroic register of the time; the dating «XV» is the Fascist era; and the campaigns it lists with pride — Coatit, Debra Aila, Adwa, then Eritrea, Somalia and Libya — are the Italian colonial wars in the Horn of Africa and North Africa. We reproduce the text because that is what the object says and because it is the only source we have for it, not because this page endorses its account. A reader looking at the wall today is reading a town’s self-portrait of 1937 as much as a biography.
Do you know more about this plaque?
We would like to know when it was put up, who paid for it, who carved it, and what the building was before it was a bank. Anything that comes with a source goes on this page, with the name of whoever sends it. Write to sofia@culturalheritageonline.com or through our contact page.
Nearby
- Monument to Luigi Luzzatti — 88 metres away, in the Parco Ca’ Diedo
- Chiesa della Maddalena — 165 metres away
Sources
- Treccani, Gherardo Pantano: born at Oderzo in 1868, died at Montecatini Terme in 1937; the Ethiopian war of 1895–96 and his capture at Adwa; his release in 1898 and the expeditions towards Sudan and into the Dancalia; the conquest of Libya in 1913; Montecucco and the Bainsizza; Ventitré anni di vita africana (1932)
- The inscription itself, transcribed from a photograph taken by Stefano Vigolo and sent to this publication on 4 October 2026. It is a primary source, not a published one.
- No published source on the plaque was found. We looked in the national catalogue of the Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione, in the Pietre della Memoria database of war memorials, and in sources on Oderzo. If one exists, we would like to hear of it.
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