The town of Affile in Italy’s Lazio region erected a mausoleum to Italian Army Marshal Rodolfo Graziani in August 2012. The event occurred 57 years after the controversial marshal’s death on January 11, 1955. As emcee of the elaborate memorial service, Mayor Ettore Viri was joined by a special delegate from the Vatican. Emblazoned with the words “Fatherland” and “Honor,” Graziani’s new tomb cost Italian taxpayers $160,000.
The event touched off an uproar because of Graziani’s role in war crimes in Ethiopia in the aftermath of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War of 1935-1937. As a result the Lazio parliamentary regime cancelled funding for the project in 2013 in the wake of a negative reaction at the polls in regional elections. The Lazio Regional Council’s legal action to remove Graziani’s name from his own monument reportedly is still pending.
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