Page 139 - Studia Universitatis Hereditati, vol 11(2) (2023)

August 1929 in the presence of the Italian heir roic acts. The monument’s design, which would
to the throne, Umberto Prince of Savoy, and the conceptually encompass both, was focused on
Vice-Mayor of Florence, Dauphiné. The base the construction of a sacral building, but it lat-
of the statue bore the inscriptions: ‘Dante pres- er differed slightly from the original plans, and
so il confino misurato da Dio’ (Dante at the bor- the unveiling ceremony also took place during
der set by God) and ‘Florence to the most Italian the period of great changes in foreign politics in
Tolmin’. According to legend, Dante entered a the 1930s. The extant archival material reveals
cave, known as Dante’s Cave, somewhere in the the extensive organisational and financial ef-
area of today’s Triglav National Park. This myth forts required to erect the monumental memori-
was therefore used to confirm the borders of the al to the seafarer Nazario Sauro in Koper. Prepa-
Treaty of Rapallo (Kastelic 2007, 34–44). rations took two decades and fostered a diverse
In the evolution of its political religion, fas- mythology on which the nationalist-tinged fas-
cism tried to portray the ‘rituals of death’ as ‘rit- cist discourse based itself. When the monument 139
uals of life’. Especially when celebrating death,
was inaugurated in Koper on Sunday 9 June
ti it had to symbolically express vitality and faith 1935, the fascist MP Carlo Delcroix gave a speech
in which he stressed the importance of the ‘war-
in the future. It wanted the sacrifice of those
who fell for the country to be the potion that rior tradition’ of the local population associated
ta it strength for its rebirth. In this context, the fas- of irredentism, he also mentioned the heroes of
with Sauro. In addition to the so-called martyrs
would breathe new life into the nation and give
the Battle of Lepanto (1571). The sea, the winged
cist liturgy wanted to promote the ‘myth of col-
lion of Venice, the King and the Duce, faith, the
lective harmony’, which was a key tool in the
di project of ‘transforming the character of the homeland, war and sacrifices, the nation, and
the maritime tradition were the key elements
Italian citizens at the time’ (Gentile 1994, 54–
59). Many memorials were built in line with this
used in his speech. On the waterfront, which
guiding principle: the cemetery in Redipuglia
and the Kobarid ossuary – both inaugurated in was named after a seaman from Koper, he con-
cluded his speech with the thought that both the
here no sul Carso (today Italy), all set along the cur- wreath-laying ceremonies at the Nazario Sauro the historical background to the erection of the monument to nazario sauro in koper ...
1938, the Park of Remembrance in Gorizia, the
Istrian towns and the monument were looking
monument to Filippo Corridoni in San Marti-
at the homeland of Italy (Marini 1936). Official
rent Slovene-Italian border in the upper Primor-
monument continued until 1943, when fascism
fell and Italy surrendered. The imposing mon-
ska region, etc.
ument on Koper’s waterfront, largely destroyed
The Reason Behind the Construction of the
Mem
studiauniversitatisorial on the Waterfront of Koper
physical materialisation of a symbol with which
The basic concept behind the monument to Naz- by German forces on 22 May 1944, was only the
the local population of the Julian March, and es-
ario Sauro in Koper in 1935 is somewhat differ- pecially of Istria, as well as of the whole Apen-
ent from the above. The reason for it took shape nine peninsula could identify. The monument
like the sacrifices made in the Great War, but as a created to commemorate the fallen hero of Ko-
monument to a hero it was subjected to a specific per wanted above all to celebrate the greatness
ideological-mythical narrative, which was meant of the nation, which was symbolically represent-
to serve as a collective example and memorial of ed by winged victory. The creation of the myth
sacrifice. During the fascist period, Nazario Sau- of Nazario Sauro was the result of a long peri-
ro’s life story was therefore further subjected to od of commemorations and events between the
historical falsification. The result was a person- two wars.
ality cult of Nazario Sauro, marked by a tradi- The idea of erecting a memorial to Naz-
tion of naval battles and extreme individual he- ario Sauro was first mooted immediately after