Oslavia War Memorial

Proposed in 1932 and completed in 1938, it consists of a round tower above a flight of steps, with three lower bastions (Prelli, Montanari and Langoris) connected by underground passages.

In the central tower is a tall black marble cross; in the crypt below is the tomb of General Achille Papa [it] and of twelve other holders of the Gold Medal of Military Valour.

The fortress-like structure, built in a medieval style reminiscent of Totenburg in Germany, was intended to make a statement of Italian permanence and occupation.

Mussolini was undertaking a tour of the northeast; on the same day as the ceremony at Oslavia, he also inaugurated The Italian Charnel House, Kobarid, laid the first stone in the building of a new Autonomous Fascist Institute in Gorizia, opened a new underground power station in Doblar and a new aqueduct in Volče.

Two days earlier, as part of the same tour, he had announced fascist Italy's first racial laws in Trieste and inaugurated the giant ossuary at Redipuglia.