Ossario di Palestro, Military memorial in Palestro, Italy

The Ossario di Palestro is a 23-metre memorial on a small hill at the western entrance of Palestro, coming from Vercelli. It stands on a square three-step base of gentile stone with a larch-wood entrance door, above which a block is pierced by twelve square windows (three per side) topped by 28 lion effigies. The upper masonry, decorated with bronze, mosaics and glazed ceramics, ends in a pyramidal dome crowned by an obelisk with a bronze eagle in flight.

On 28 May 1887 the Palestro town council resolved to raise a monument for the fallen of the 30–31 May 1859 battle, the first victory of the Franco-Piedmontese forces over Austria. A national competition in 1891 chose Giuseppe Sommaruga's design; the Basso firm of Vercelli built it from June 1892, and it was inaugurated on 28 May 1893 after the remains were moved from the local cemetery on 22 May.

The mosaics on the four sides of the building record the names of the three main sites of the 1859 battle: Palestro, Confienza and Vinzaglio. The monument was designed by the architect Giuseppe Sommaruga, chosen in 1891 from six projects in a national competition. Every year on the last Sunday of May the battle anniversary is commemorated here with civil, military and religious authorities, veterans' associations and the twinned town of Montebello della Battaglia.

The ossuary stands on a small hill at Palestro's western entrance, on the road from Vercelli, and is reached by following that approach into town. The annual commemoration of the battle is held on the last Sunday of May, with civil, military and religious authorities attending.

Italy's royal family, led by King Umberto I, contributed 8,000 lire to speed up completion of this monument. This support shows how important the project was to Italian unification.