Saturday 4 November will also be celebrated in Castelfiorentino as the Feast of the Armed Forces and National Unity. The homage to the tomb of the “Unknown Soldier”, located in the Municipal Cemetery of Castelfiorentino, to whom the Municipal Council decided to confer honorary citizenship two years ago, will be renewed this year too.
As you may recall, the body of the “Unknown Soldier” was chosen in Aquileia by a woman (Maria Bergamas) who had lost her son during the war. Faced with eleven nameless coffins, the mother chose one that symbolically represented not only her son Antonio, but all the children of the mothers of Italy who had suffered the devastating consequences of that war tragedy. From an individual and family mourning, the “Unknown Soldier” thus became the celebration of a “mass mourning”: the transport of the “Unknown Soldier” along the railway line (passing through Venice, Bologna, Florence, as far as Rome) was accompanied everywhere by great popular participation, which paid homage to the convoy (which was travelling at a very reduced speed) with a collective feeling of genuine emotion.
This is the programme of the celebrations. At 9.00 a.m. there will be a gathering in Piazza Berlinguer of the authorities and associations (combatants, Resistance and volunteer associations) and departure for Petrazzi and then to Castelnuovo D’Elsa for the laying of a laurel wreath at the tombstone of the fallen soldiers; this will be followed (at 10.00 a.m.) by the laying of a wreath at the tomb of the “Unknown Soldier” at the Municipal Cemetery. At 10.30 a.m. there will be a mass in suffrage of the fallen at the Church of Santa Verdiana and, at 11.30 a.m., the laying of a laurel wreath at the “Tilli” primary school war memorial stone. From here, a short procession will start to Piazza Gramsci (via Palestro, via Bovio, via Volontari del Sangue, Corso Matteotti) for the laying of a laurel wreath at the War Memorial. Accompaniment by the Filarmonica “G. Verdi” and a speech by Councillor Simone Bruchi are scheduled.
