Vicenza - Ossibus Militum
Vicenza, Italia
In 1857 the officers of the Austrian garrison asked the emperor to be allowed to build a memorial charnel house next to the Basilica, where to collect the remains of the 787 soldiers and 40 officers fallen "pro Austriae incolumitate”. The ossuary was unveiled in 1862, during the last visit of Emperor Franz Josef to the Veneto region. It bears the inscription: “FRANCISCUS JOSEPHUS JMPERATOR / OSSIBUS MILITUM / QUI DIE X JUNII MDCCCXLVIII / HIS IN LOCIS / PRO AUSTRIAE INCOLUMITATE / SINGULARI VIRTUTE DIMICANTES / MORTE GLORIOSA OCCUBUERUNT / PIE CONLECTIS ET SEPULTIS / P. C.” The monument was on the point of being destroyed in 1866; it was saved only for the strong intervention of the Ministry of Interior, who reminded the Vicenza administrators of the civic duty and Christian piety due to the graves and monuments of the Austrian soldiers fallen in Italy.