The Futa Pass military cemetery is located in the Apennines at an altitude of 952 meters. It was inaugurated on June 28, 1969 and is the largest German memorial in Italy.
Cemetery description
The Futa Pass military cemetery is located on a hilltop 40 kilometers north of Florence and 40 kilometers south of Bologna at an altitude of 952 meters. Lists of the names of the buried soldiers are displayed in the recreation room of the entrance building. A large map of the cemetery makes it easier to find the graves.
A 2,000-metre-long wall spirals up the hill, enclosing the graves of the fallen on terraces and ending in a wall that rises steeply into the sky. The last spiral of the wall forms the "Court of Honor". From there, a staircase leads to the memorial room in the crypt, next to which lies the common grave of 397 German fallen soldiers. At the entrance to the memorial room, their names are engraved on five large natural stone plaques.
In memory of the disbanded German military cemetery in Cervia, the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge (German War Graves Commission) has placed the memorial stones that were preserved during the transfer of the fallen in the Cervia room of the crypt.
The cemetery, arranged in terraces, is divided into 72 grave blocks of different sizes. The entire complex cannot be seen from any point. The names and personal details of each fallen soldier are engraved on 70 x 40 centimeter grave slabs. The Futa Pass military cemetery was inaugurated on June 28, 1969.
Burial
The German War Graves Commission recovered the dead from field graves and municipal cemeteries in the surrounding ten provinces of Bologna, Florence, Forli, Lucca, Modena, Pesaro, Pisa, Pistoia, Ravenna and Reggio Emilia. This was necessary in order to preserve the graves of the fallen and to identify the still unknown dead.
History
The area around the Futa Pass was the most prominent battle zone of the so-called Gothic position. German and Allied troops clashed on the defensive line in April 1945. On April 21, 1945, the German Apennine defences collapsed after heavy fighting. The majority of those who died in the battles there are buried at the Futa Pass military cemetery.
Special features
With 30,776 fallen soldiers, the site at the Futa Pass in the Apennine mountain range is the largest German military cemetery in Italy.
