Campo della Gloria al Cimitero Maggiore
The Campo 64 of the Cimitero Maggiore is where partisans and soldiers who died during the Liberation war are buried.
Campo 64 of the Cimitero Maggiore di Milano at the end of viale Certosa, also called Musocco, is where the partisans and soldiers who died during the Liberation war are buried. The area is accessible by entering the cemetery and walking down the first alley on the right after the main entrance. Its most recent restoration was inaugurated on 24th April 1997 with the unveiling of the copy of the «Partigiano fucilato» by Marino Mazzacurati (1955), which is located since 1968 in the Cimitero della Villetta in Parma. The graves are lined up one after the other, each bearing the name and a photograph of the deceased. Today, this series of gravestones turned the place into a place of Memory for all the people in Milan who were killed and deported.
The Cimitero Maggiore had become a place of Memory already in 1945, when Milan was still oppressed by the nazis and the fascists. This is where some of the partisans are buried, a place where people used to gather, manifesting their disapproval of the regime and organizing the Resistance. The area, at the time, was called Campo 60.
The first arrangement of the area was up to the Comitato Onoranze Caduti per la Libertà, chaired by Antonio Greppi, mayor of the Liberation, but it was later re-assigned, after a public selection, to the architect Umberto Comolli, who designed the tall stele with the six lateral slabs bearing the names of the fallen. From the outside, two fountains would have brought the water needed in the Campo. The 25th April 1948 is the day the first stone of the monument was laid; inside of it is contained a parchment with the following writing: «On the initiative of the Comitato Onoranze Caduti per la Libertà of Milan and its province today, 25th April 1948, we lay the first stone of the Monument reminding future generations about the names of those who heroically sacrificed their lives for Italy and Freedom. 1922-1945». At the bottom, the signatures of the supporters of the project. The monument was inaugurated on 6th November 1949.
Massimo Castoldi