The historical context: the First World War in Italy
Italy entered the First World War in May 1915 and fought until the armistice of November 1918. The conflict caused approximately 650,000 deaths among Italian military personnel, and an unspecified number of missing soldiers whose remains were never identified. Battles on the Isonzo and Piave fronts left tens of thousands of bodies in conditions that made identification impossible.
As early as 1921, while the allied nations — France, Britain, Belgium — were honouring their own unnamed fallen, Italy initiated the process for the transfer of a comparable body.
The choice: Maria Bergamas
On 28 October 1921, at Aquileia, eleven coffins containing unidentified remains were assembled, brought from eleven different theatres of war: Rovereto, the Dolomites, the Asiago Plateau, Grappa, the Lower Piave, Cadore, Gorizia, the Lower Isonzo, Caporetto, Castagnevizza, and a coffin for those who died at sea.
Maria Bergamas, mother of Antonio Bergamas — a Triestine volunteer who had been lost on the Karst — was chosen to designate the body. She moved slowly among the eleven coffins, stopped before the fifth and knelt. No one knows why she chose that one: perhaps an intuition, perhaps chance, perhaps something beyond words.
The remaining ten coffins were buried in the military shrine at Aquileia.
The funeral train's journey
The funeral train left Aquileia on 29 October 1921 on a railway carriage hauled by a locomotive draped in black. It crossed the entire peninsula from north to south, passing through:
- Udine, Treviso, Venice, Padua, Bologna
- Ferrara, Modena, Parma, Piacenza
- Milan, Brescia, Verona
- Then southward towards Rome, via Florence and Arezzo
At every station the train stopped. People waited on the platforms, in silence. Women in mourning, veterans in uniform, children lifted on their fathers' shoulders. The journey lasted three days.
4 November 1921: the burial
On 4 November 1921 — the third anniversary of victory — the coffin was carried in procession from Termini Station to the Altare della Patria through the streets of Rome. Hundreds of thousands of people were present. Among those in the cortège: war invalids, mothers of the fallen, Knights of Vittorio Veneto.
The body was buried in the crypt at the centre of the Altare della Patria. Above the crypt, the Eternal Flame was lit — and has never been extinguished since. Two military personnel in dress uniform guard it without interruption, with a changing of the guard every hour.
The Flame today
The Flame of the Unknown Soldier is guarded by military personnel in permanent service at the Vittoriano. Units change every hour: the changing of the guard is one of the most solemn and frequently witnessed moments at the monument, visible to visitors every day.
Every 4 November, on the Day of National Unity and Armed Forces, the President of the Republic lays a laurel wreath at the Shrine of the Unknown Soldier in the presence of the highest state authorities.
With a private driver
Reach the Altare della Patria by private driver. From your hotel, airport or station — direct and on time. Service from €49. → Book at myromedriver.com
Frequently asked questions
Can visitors see the Unknown Soldier's crypt? Yes, the crypt is freely accessible on the ground floor of the Vittoriano. Visitors may approach the Flame but may not enter the area reserved for the honour guard.
When does the changing of the guard take place? Every hour, all year round, every day. The exact timing varies: check on site. The ceremony lasts approximately 10 minutes and is one of the most striking spectacles at the monument.
Is the Unknown Soldier's identity known? No, and by definition it can never be revealed. The symbolic force lies in the anonymity: he represents all the unnamed fallen.
Article no. 183 — TIER S — MON-10 Altare della Patria / Vittoriano Type: HISTORICAL Words: ~680