The municipality of Quero in the province of Belluno, Veneto, lies on the eastern slope of the Monte Grappa massif on the River Piave. The Quero war cemetery, which was inaugurated on May 25, 1939, contains 3,463 war dead from the First World War. The military cemetery is located on the eastern edge of the town at Via Papa Giovanni XXIII No. 37.
Description of the cemetery
A German-Italian agreement enabled the Volksbund to begin building the Quero war cemetery in 1936, which was opened to the public three years later. The war dead buried there, members of the allied German and Austro-Hungarian armies, lost their lives in the First World War. A characteristic feature of the war cemetery is its fortress-like construction on a hill above the River Piave. The memorial room for the dead soldiers is located in a tower, which is accessible via narrow steps. A double ring of walls, designed as a moat, runs in a shallow curve from the tower to the bastion of the complex. On the other side, a straight wall connects the tower and bastion. The ensemble of buildings surrounds a comrade's grave, which is overgrown with cotoneaster plants. The bell-shaped memorial room receives indirect daylight through a shaft that opens up the cross vault of the room at the intersection of two ribs. The central design element of the relatively bright room is a black stone: a lectern made of Swedish granite decorated with ornaments.
History
The three Piave battles of the First World War took place in the region of the Monte Grappa massif. In November 1917 - with German support - and in June 1918, the Austro-Hungarian army attempted to break through the Italian defensive lines and thus defeat Italy. The third Battle of the Piave in October 1918, on the other hand, was an offensive by the Italian army. It ended with the defeat of Austria-Hungary. Fighting only took place in the north of Italy during the First World War. More than 16,000 German soldiers lost their lives. They rest in seven cemeteries established by the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V. (German War Graves Commission). Members of the Austro-Hungarian army are also buried there. Another war cemetery, located on the Pordoi Pass in the Dolomites, was only completed after the end of the Second World War.
Special feature
The Quero war cemetery belongs to the category of so-called castles of the dead. The architect Robert Tischler developed the concept in question in the 1920s and realized it at several locations in the following decades. Some of these "castles of the dead" were also built for the dead of the Second World War, including in North Africa, Italy and France.
