On the Riviera del Brenta, beside the villa that served as Field Hospital no. 184 in the last year of the Great War, the people of Mira raised in 1925 a stone gateway to their dead and a park of remembrance behind it, with a bronze spear for every name.
At a glance
The Parco della Rimembranza stands on the Riviera at Mira Taglio, in the grounds of Villa dei Leoni, the sixteenth-century villa commissioned by the Contarini family of Venice. It was laid out in 1925 with a monumental front on the Riviera designed by the architects Gastone Iscra and Giovanni Possamai; paths cross the green and are lined with dozens of bronze commemorative spears, each carrying the name of a fallen soldier. The gateway bears the dedication «Ai morti per la patria il popolo di Mira», and inside it two stone plaques carry the two texts that opened and closed Italy’s war: the King’s proclamation of 24 May 1915 and the Bollettino della Vittoria of 4 November 1918 signed by Diaz.
Key facts
- Built: 1925, as the park of remembrance of Mira
- Architects of the monumental front: Gastone Iscra and Giovanni Possamai (the Walk of Peace page spells the first name Isera)
- Setting: the grounds of Villa dei Leoni, sixteenth century, commissioned by the Contarini of Venice
- The villa in the war: after the retreat to the Piave in 1917, Ospedale da Campo n. 184, with 50 beds
- Inscriptions: «Ai morti per la patria il popolo di Mira» on the front; «Udite o vivi ciò che dicono i morti: noi dormiamo ma il nostro cuore vigila» on the inner face; the plaques of 24 May 1915 and 4 November 1918
- GPS: 45.4342, 12.1300 · Open in Google Maps (OpenStreetMap)
History
After the Italian retreat of 1917 to the line of the Piave, from Monte Grappa to the sea, the villas of the Riviera del Brenta became hospitals for the sick and wounded coming back from the front. Villa dei Leoni, which the Contarini had built in the sixteenth century, was among them: it took the name of Ospedale da Campo n. 184 and had fifty beds. The park of remembrance that belongs to the villa was made in 1925, in the years when towns all over Italy were planting parks and avenues to their dead, with a monumental forepart on the Riviera designed by Gastone Iscra and Giovanni Possamai. Several paths cross the green, flanked by dozens of bronze spears, and each spear remembers by name one soldier of Mira who did not come back.
The memorial is today a stop on the Walk of Peace, the long-distance trail from the Alps to the Adriatic that follows the traces of the Isonzo front, and the panel at the gate tells its story in Italian, Slovenian, German and English. Flowers stand at the foot of the gateway, and the park behind it belongs to the public grounds of the villa.
What you see
A gateway in white Istrian stone in the manner of a triumphal arch: a round arch between rusticated piers, a frieze with the dedication, a triangular pediment carved with a funerary urn between wreaths, and a plain attic above. Iron gates with spearheads close the arch; a lantern hangs in the vault. Low walls run to either side, each with a large framed plaque, and end in pillars carved with helmeted heads. On the inner face, towards the park, the frieze carries the second inscription, and the two plaques of the royal proclamation and of the Bollettino della Vittoria are set in the wings. Beyond the gate the paths of the park run between cedars and cypresses, with the bronze spears among the grass.
Nearby
- Villa Contarini Pisani dei Leoni — the villa whose grounds hold the park
- Villa dei Leoni Theatre — in the same complex
Gallery
Sources
- The Walk of Peace (text by Regione del Veneto), Villa dei Leoni — Park of Remembrance: the Contarini villa of the sixteenth century, the Field Hospital no. 184 with 50 beds after the retreat of 1917, the park laid out in 1925 with a monumental front on the Riviera, the two architects, the bronze spears with the names of the fallen
- Information panel of the Walk of Peace at the park gate, Mira (photographed on 5 November 2022): the same facts in Italian, with the architects’ names spelt Gastone Iscra and Giovanni Possamai
- Ministero della Cultura, Catalogo generale dei Beni Culturali, Iscra, Gastone: the architect’s entry in the national catalogue
- Stefano Vigolo, photographs of 5 and 11 November 2022: the inscriptions on the gateway and the two plaques, read from the photographs
- OpenStreetMap, Mira Taglio, Riviera: the position
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