Acuto war memorial

Acuto war memorial

Originally uploaded by John Barnabas.

I found this rather dark and creepy war memorial grove next to the cemetery in Acuto. Before one reaches the main cemetery - mostly concrete and stone vaults above ground - there?s a dark grove on the side of the hill which contains the memorial to the Acuto war dead. The grove is walled all around, with iron gates at the bottom. Inside the gates, broad and shallow steps climb up the hill to a barely seen chapel. The trees are planted in regimented rows ,and by each tree there is an enamel plaque on an iron stalk with the name of one of the war dead - immolated, apparently, for the glory of la patria. Perpetual lights - battery operated, by their looks - burn by some of the memorials, glimmering in the under-tree gloom like igni fatui or will-o?-the-wisp.

An old chapel sits at the top of the steps. The door is ajar and another perpetual light burns there, near the altar. I hesitate to go in - this reminds me too much of those ghost stories in which the hero or heroine enters the ruined chapel in the graveyard only to be locked in or to encounter a crazed and ancient priest or some other horror. I walk around. I have a look at the monument to the war dead - a bas-relief of heroic soldiers in World War II Italian helmets - odd to think that this is a memorial to ?the other side? - that had been placed there in 1982. Why so long after the war?

I skirt around the chapel and pluck up courage to push the door. It swings silently - no ghost-story creaking of hinges, no crazed priest to grab me and slam the door with grating of key and an invitation to eternity - and I see a bare, dim space with a few chairs along the sides. Candles stand before the altar, but there?s nothing on top, not even a cross. Peering further into the gloom I can see that the cross is in fact against the east wall above the altar.

The perpetual light gleams in its sconce to one side of the altar.

A creepy place altogether.