Italian Military Cemetery of Bligny, World War I military cemetery in Bligny, France.
The Italian Military Cemetery of Bligny is a memorial site holding approximately 3,400 graves of Italian soldiers who died during the First World War. Stone markers identify each grave, and several commemorative monuments are scattered across the grounds.
The cemetery was created during the war, not after it: it holds soldiers of General Alberico Albricci's II Italian Army Corps who fought in the Second Battle of the Marne in July 1918, and of Peppino Garibaldi's Garibaldi Legion of 1914-1915. A stele records that 41,000 Italian soldiers fought on the French front from April to November 1918. In 2023 it was inscribed among the World War I cemeterial and memorial sites of the Western Front as transnational World Heritage.
The memorial column in the Jardin du souvenir carries the dedication "Roma ai 5000 italiani caduti combattendo per la Francia, 1914-1918", placed by Rome for Italians who died fighting for France. A stele records that from April to November 1918, 41,000 Italian soldiers fought on the French front. A separate monument honours the Garibaldian Legion of 1914-1915 under Lieutenant-Colonel Peppino Garibaldi and the Italian Auxiliary Troops in France.
The site lies along the RD 980, 17 km west of Reims, on the land of Chambrecy. The cemetery stands on the north side of the road and the Jardin du souvenir faces it on the south side, so both are seen from the same stop. The ground slopes gently and the rows of crosses are set on gravel between low concrete curbs.
General Ugo Bagnani did not command troops in the field: he was on a mission from the Italian government to the British army and died of pneumonia at Cassel on 7 February 1917, before the Italian corps fought at Bligny. His grave, with a cross erected in his memory, lies at the centre of the cemetery beside the main monument.
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