Eligio Di Donato, Volante Di Donato, Antonio Di Pomponio, Nicola di Pomponio, Gabriele Travaglini, Mario Zinni: these citizens emigrated and died at the dawn of 8 August 1956, far from their home, in the dreadful tragedy of the coal mine “Bois du Cazier” in Marcinelle in Belgium. To their everlasting memory Roccascalegna dedicates the monument in Via Duca degli Abruzzi. Due to the fire set by a spark from a malfunctioning trolley 262 miners died with them more than one thousand meters underground: 136 were Italians and 60 of them were from Abruzzo. Marcinelle is the biggest tragedy on the job in the history of Abruzzo.

The “memorial” was inaugurated on 8 August 2004, the day of the anniversary of the tragedy and its dramatic symbol is a rail trolley full of coal. It is a gift from the town of Marcinelle to the “sons of Roccascalegna” that hunger and poverty forced to emigrate, with the objective to maintain their family and dreaming of a social redemption also after the pain and sorrow of World War 2. Instead, they never came back. The 4 basic panels of the monument are engraved with the suffering faces of miners covered with dark dust raising on a small lawn with colourful flowers, the emblem of rebirth and a new life.

The area “Piazzola delle vittime di Marcinelle” is a page of history open to the entire community of Roccascalegna, that is interconnected by the bonds of family and friendship relations, as you can understand by the surnames of the victims. The day when the corpses of the miners arrived to the town was a time of sorrow for everybody.

Today, the coal mine “Bois du Cazier” is a museum and it is part of the Unesco world heritage. Since 2001, on the 8 August each year, Italy has celebrated the “day of the Italian sacrifice on the job in the world to pay a tribute to anybody who died on the job abroad”.

[Credits | Text: Ottavio Di Renzo De Laurentis | Translation: Mirella Rapa | Voice and music: Studio Qreate | Photo: Laura Di Biase]