Historic monument

Inaugurated on 11 November 1937 in Piazza San Martino, the monument commemorating the victims of the First World War (later also dedicated to the victims of the Second World War), had a rather troubled genesis. In the years immediately following the Great War, as elsewhere, a Committee was formed to collect bids for the construction of a monument commemorating the numerous resident soldiers of the Legnago who died between 1915 and 1918. The approval of the plans, but also the place where to erect the monument, were the object of exhausting discussions, which paralyzed the question; a second committee was formed after, and then a third who completed the monument only between 1933 and 1937, very late compared to what has happened in other municipalities. The same idea of monument varied: from an approach according to the typologies of the epoch (a 'classic’ obelisk), it passed to more scenic proposals, including that of a triumphal arch in Piazza Garibaldi at the end of Corso della Vittoria. The site of the monument to the Fallen was finally fixed in Piazza San Martino, which had been rearranged during the Twenties following the demolition of the barracks ‘Palazzina’ with the elevation, the paving and the insertion of the fountain.

The design of the building, type ‘littoria tower’, was signed by the woodland architect Mario De Stefani; the façade of the monument houses, respectively in the left and right wings, the plates with the Bulletin of the beginning of the war of 24 May 1915 and the Bulletin of the Victory of 4 November 1918. In the centre of the tower there were three stone inserts that originally represented the rods of the inverted beams as a sign of mourning. The axes were removed after the fall of Fascism. Inside the monument houses in the atrium six slabs with engravings of the names of the dead of the First World War; in the apse behind the chapel are instead walled the memorial stones of the fallen of the Second World War.

An inscription inserted in the first step of the chapel carries the dedication and the year of inauguration. The altar is enriched by relics from the Great War, including shell casings and objects collected on various war fronts. During the bombing of Legnago between 1944 and 1945 the monument to the fallen, miraculously escaped destruction, was providential refuge for many families of the place.