THE ROOM OF MEMORY

Valmontone, the Cassino of Rome

During the tragic wartime events from 15 October 1943 to the end of May 1944, Valmontone paid a tremendous price in terms of destruction and civilian casualties. During this period, the city suffered between 48 to 60 bombardments and machine-gun fire from Anglo-American warplanes and flying fortresses. Some 85 percent of the buildings were destroyed and the remaining 15 percent severely damaged. When wartime hostilities ceased, about 800 families from Valmontone were forced to live in caves, huts and makeshift shelters, exposed to epidemics of all kinds. The town’s monuments and churches were razed to the ground, with the exception of the Collegiate Church of the Assumption and the Doria Pamphilj Palace, which, although seriously hit, nevertheless remained standing, becoming a symbol of the town’s rebirth.

For these reasons, Valmontone is often referred to in official documents as the Cassino of Rome: ‘The municipality of Valmontone, as everyone knows, is the most severely damaged town in the province due to the well-known events of the war and is considered the ‘Cassino of Rome’. In fact, out of 813 pre-war buildings, 813 were destroyed or rendered uninhabitable. […] The main nucleus of the town, where the various offices are located, has remained completely isolated following the collapse of the wall at Via Nuova. There is a narrow access road which is inaccessible owing to its steep slope and the lack of stability required to withstand the intense traffic and is impassable due to the very poor road surface’ (Extract from a memorandum drafted by Acting Mayor Rinaldo Livignani on 31 October 1950).

In a document from shortly before, the situation described is bleak: ‘The State, under the direction of the Civil Engineering department, has so far built around 350 dwellings on the Casilina state road to give the passerby the impression that the town has been completely rebuilt. This private initiative has not had the hoped-for impetus as almost the entire population is in a miserable state, having had everything they owned destroyed. More than 800 families are still living in huts, cellars and unhealthy environments, waiting for safe and modest accommodation. In recent months, cases of typhoid, paratyphoid and scarlet fever have occurred’.

The housing emergency was, in fact, the main problem that the municipal administration had to face in the aftermath of the war. To this end, a special commission was set up, meeting for the first time in October 1945. The allocation of housing was determined according to the priority of the citizens’ requests and according to certain criteria: if people lived in huts or caves with children or elderly people who were ill, requests were generally accepted. If, on the other hand, the family had more secure accommodation and no health emergencies, applications would be postponed or rejected. Citizens therefore often enclosed medical certificates and family status reports. In 1945, 59 houses were allocated out of a total of 123 applications.