As part of the centennial commemorations of the 14-18 war and the death of Bruno and Costante Garibaldi, who fell in the battles of the Argonne, a tribute was paid to them in the presence of civil and military authorities at the Monument in Garibaldi Square.
On December 26, 1914, Bruno Garibaldi, grandson of the hero of the Two Worlds, Giuseppe Garibaldi, fell under German bullets just a few meters from the enemy trenches, in Argonne, France.
Just a few days later, on January 5, 1915, his younger brother Costante was also killed as he emerged from his trench at the head of his men, still in Argonne. Bruno and Costante, who died for France as part of the 4th Regiment of the March of the 1st Regiment of the Foreign Legion, better known as the Garibaldian Legion because it was commanded by Peppino Garibaldi, another grandson of the great Giuseppe, thus became the origin of a myth.
This myth endures to this day, a hundred years after their tragic disappearance, as through their sacrifice, the entire adventure of the Garibaldians of the Argonne is written. These red shirts set out to fight for France in the autumn of 1914 (as Giuseppe Garibaldi and his son Ricciotti had done in 1870-1871), the vanguard of an Italian army that was still neutral, heirs of a “Risorgimento” tradition, bearers of political hopes but also sacrificial victims of a war that crushed millions of bodies and souls and subjects of a multifaceted political and memorial exploitation from 1915 to the present day.
