Sacrario del Monferrato

Beneath the neo-Gothic salesian church of the Sacro Cuore in Casale Monferrato lies a memorial unlike any other in Piedmont: the Sacrario del Monferrato, where marble slabs record about four thousand men of the two world wars from a hundred and five Monferrato towns. Assembled by one priest and preserved by volunteer alpini, it is remembrance on a civic scale.

Why it matters

After the First World War, the towns of the Monferrato faced the same grief everywhere and no common place to mourn. Don Ermenegildo Bianco, a salesian of Casale, answered that need: between 1918 and 1921, helped by Red Cross volunteer Adele Pugno, he gathered the names of the fallen from municipalities across the provinces of Alessandria, Asti and Torino, and the crypt was blessed by bishop Albino Pella on 21 October 1922, the same day the church above was inaugurated. The result is described by the Pietre della Memoria register as a monument unique in Piedmont — not a city's memorial but a region's, listing its dead by community so that every village finds its own page on the walls.

What to notice

The memorial occupies a crypt with three naves and an altar in the apse. Marble slabs list the First World War dead by municipality, while individual plaques and later inscriptions commemorate those who died or went missing in the Second World War. Other plaques remember Salesian students and military chaplains. Don Bianco, who gathered the names, was buried in the crypt in 1960.

Context and history

The shrine forms part of the Salesian complex of the Church of the Sacro Cuore di Gesù, inaugurated in 1922. The memorial’s first names were gathered by Don Ermenegildo Bianco and Adele Pugno between 1918 and 1921; Bishop Albino Pella blessed the crypt on 21 October 1922. A second campaign collected names after the Second World War, and the expanded memorial was inaugurated in 1955. The Gruppo Alpini of Casale led conservation work from 2002 to 2004 and continues to care for the shrine with the parish.