The Site

Sant’Anna di Stazzema, a small village in the Apuan Alps of Tuscany, is a place marked by both profound tragedy and the perpetual commitment to memory and peace. During Second World War, on August 12th, 1944, the village became the site of one of the most heinous massacres carried out by Nazi SS troops, assisted by Italian fascists. That morning, over 560 civilians, including 130 children, were brutally murdered. Most of them had arrived to the site as refugees from other regions believing the remoteness of this place would grant them protection. The massacre, intended as a reprisal against the Italian Resistance, unfolded with horrific violence, as women, elderly residents, and children were gathered in homes and barns before being killed, while the village itself was set ablaze. Unlike other sites of mass executions that often took place in locations outside of the populated areas, Sant’Anna di Stazzema's massacre occurred within the heart of the village, making its memory deeply embedded in the physical landscape.

Following the war, Sant’Anna di Stazzema was partially rebuilt, leaving behind ruins and scars that remain as silent witnesses to the atrocity. Despite the immediacy of the tragedy, the local community sought to establish a memorial as early as 1948, at a time when public commemoration of such events was still uncommon, given how recent the wounds of war remained. The desire to honour the victims and preserve their memory took shape in a landscape still marked by grief.

In 2000, the National Park of Peace of Sant’Anna di Stazzema was founded to ensure the remembrance of the massacre and to provide a space for reflection on the consequences of war, totalitarian ideologies, and the devastation inflicted upon civilian populations. The Ossuary Monument, a solemn tower at the site, houses the remains of many of the victims and stands as a powerful reminder of the fragility of peace. Monument dominates the surrounding coastal plain and the coastline. It was constructed in 1948 based on the project of architect Tito Salvatori. It takes the form of a tower twelve meters high, faced with stones. The base of the tower has four arches under which is placed a sculpture by Vincenzo Gasperetti that represents a woman and her baby fallen victims during that tragic event. The Historical Museum of the Resistance, located within the park, provides visitors with a deeper understanding of the events through artefacts, documents, and personal testimonies. The park itself is not only a commemorative space but also a centre for educational activities aimed at promoting human rights, peace, and historical awareness.

A defining feature of the site is the Via Crucis pathway, which leads visitors toward the ossuary. This path, marked by prayer stations marked by bronze plates, serves not only as a religious reference but also as a symbolic journey through the pain and resilience of the Sant’Anna community. In Catholic tradition, the Via Crucis is a pilgrimage of sorrow, culminating at a sacred place. At Sant’Anna di Stazzema, this pathway mirrors the community’s collective grief, with the ossuary standing at its end as a site of remembrance. The deterioration of the pathway, caused by years of exposure and the footsteps of thousands of visitors, emphasises the challenge of preserving both the physical and intangible aspects of memory. The path requires ongoing conservation and maintenance to ensure that this place remains accessible and continues to tell its story.

Sant’Anna di Stazzema receives around 30,000 visitors annually, many of whom are schoolchildren and students participating in educational programs about the history of war crimes, the consequences of violence, and the importance of remembrance. The National Park of Peace of Sant’Anna di Stazzema, which manages the site, works to safeguard both the tangible heritage and the stories of survivors and their families. Through research, exhibitions, guided visits, and commemorative events, the institution encourages dialogue between generations, ensuring that the lessons of the past remain relevant.

The importance of this place extends beyond its historical context. In a world where conflicts and atrocities continue to unfold, the preservation of memory at Sant’Anna di Stazzema serves as a reminder of the consequences of violence and the urgent need for peacebuilding. The village and its memorial do not exist as relics of the past but as warnings for the present, urging reflection on the value of human life and the responsibilities of society to remember, protect, and educate.

The Project

The physical conservation of a heritage site and intangible heritage documentation, are frequently intrinsically interconnected, reflecting the dual responsibility of heritage professionals: to safeguard both the material integrity of places of remembrance and the fragile testimonies of those who lived through the events being commemorated. The European Heritage Volunteers Project at Sant’Anna di Stazzema will focus on the conservation of the Via Crucis pathway leading from the village to the ossuary memorial, alongside a documentation and community engagement initiative dedicated to preserving the voices and memories of survivors and their families.

The practical conservation work will concentrate on the repairs of the Via Crucis pathway, which has suffered from erosion, structural displacement, and heavy visitor traffic. The participants will be involved in repositioning loose stones, replacing missing ones, and working with mortar to ensure structural stability, preserving the physical accessibility of this memorial route. The wooden handrail that lines the path, originally installed as a guiding element for visitors, will also undergo repairs. This will include correcting past interventions that compromised its stability and replacing damaged segments, ensuring that the pathway continues to serve its role in guiding visitors on their reflective journey to the ossuary.

The project will also engage with the archival collection of the local community, supporting efforts to digitise artefacts, personal records, and historical materials related to the massacre. The act of digitalisation serves not only as a safeguard against the physical deterioration of these materials but also as a means of making them accessible for future research, education, and public engagement. Just as the pathway to the ossuary requires careful conservation to remain a site of commemoration, the intangible heritage stored in the community’s historical archives must be preserved to ensure that memory remains vivid and accessible.

Parallel to the conservation measures, the project will focus on documenting and preserving the voices of the Sant’Anna di Stazzema community. The massacre left not only physical destruction but also a profound and lasting impact on survivors and their descendants, shaping the way memory has been transmitted across generations. A video documentation facilitated led by a video documentarist from the European Heritage Volunteers Network experienced in recording oral histories and producing documentary narratives will provide a platform for survivors, their families, and community members to share their testimonies. These stories, which risk being lost as time passes, will be recorded on-site, integrating interviews, archival materials, and filmed sequences of the locations where the events unfolded. The result will be a documentary resource to be used by the local museum and beyond, ensuring that the voices of those who remember continuing to resonate in the future. The participants will contribute to the video documentation process by providing technical and logistical support, assisting with filming, interviews, and archival integration, while also sharing their own reflections and impressions of the site, enriching the narrative with their perspectives as emerging heritage professionals.

A defining element of this initiative is the active engagement with the local community, bridging the past and present through dialogue, shared experiences, and collaborative storytelling. The participants will work alongside historians, survivors, and community members, learning from their knowledge while contributing their perspectives as emerging heritage professionals.

This exchange will be further highlighted in a public event, where members of the local community will be invited to attend presentations prepared by the participants. The presentations will provide a platform to contribute perspectives from their home countries on memorialisation at heritage sites connected to crimes against humanity. These presentations and the related discussions will use comparative examples to examine how societies confront painful histories, the role of heritage professionals in shaping narratives of remembrance, and the challenges of balancing conservation with evolving cultural memory.

Hands-on conservation, archival preservation, documentary production, and community engagement form the core of this project, encouraging a meaningful dialogue between tangible heritage and the lived experiences it represents. The memory of Sant’Anna di Stazzema remains embedded in both its landscape and the stories of those who carry its history forward. Preserving the pathway and its material integrity allows future generations to continue walking this route of remembrance, while recording the voices of survivors ensures their testimony remains part of the collective memory. As the devaluation of human life and the recurrence of atrocities continue to cast a shadow over the present, initiatives like this are more important than ever to encourage reflection, prompting societies to confront their past and reaffirm their commitment to peace today.

The project will take place from August 18th to August 30th, 2025, and is organised by European Heritage Volunteers, in collaboration with the National Park of Peace of Sant’Anna di Stazzema, and the European Heritage Label Bureau.