The German Futa Pass Cemetery (; ) is Italy's largest

war cemetery A war grave is a burial place for members of the armed forces or civilians who died during military campaigns or operations. Definition The term "war grave" does not only apply to graves: ships sunk during wartime are often considered to b ...

. According to the

German War Graves Commission The German War Graves Commission (, ) is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of German war graves in Europe and North Africa. Its objectives are acquisition, maintenance and care of German war graves; tending to next of kin; youth and ed ...

it holds remains of 30,800 German soldiers who died in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. It is located at the summit of the

Futa Pass The Futa Pass or La Futa Pass () is a Pass (geography), pass in the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, at an elevation of . It is located in the ''comune'' of Firenzuola, in the Metropolitan City of Florence. It separates the valleys of Mugello (region), M ...

(', 903 m) in the

Apennines The Apennines or Apennine Mountains ( ; or Ἀπέννινον ὄρος; or – a singular with plural meaning; )Latin ''Apenninus'' (Greek or ) has the form of an adjective, which would be segmented ''Apenn-inus'', often used with nouns s ...

and in

Mugello The Mugello () is a historic region and valley in northern Tuscany, Italy, corresponding to the course of the River Sieve. It is located to the north of the city of Florence and includes the northernmost portion of the Metropolitan City of Fl ...

, near Traversa in the commune of

Firenzuola Firenzuola is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Florence, in the Italian region Tuscany, located about northeast of Florence. Firenzuola borders the following municipalities: Barberino di Mugello, Borgo San Lorenzo, Cast ...

, that is, about 40 kilometers north of

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

and 40 kilometers south of

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

along National Highway Nr. 65 near the border of

Tuscany Tuscany ( ; ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of 3,660,834 inhabitants as of 2025. The capital city is Florence. Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, artistic legacy, and its in ...

and

Emilia-Romagna Emilia-Romagna (, , both , ; or ; ) is an Regions of Italy, administrative region of northern Italy, comprising the historical regions of Emilia (region), Emilia and Romagna. Its capital is Bologna. It has an area of , and a population of 4.4 m ...

History

FirenzuolaSoldatenfriedhofFutapassMonumentGraeber2

The pass was part of the

Gothic Line The Gothic Line (; ) was a German and Italian defensive line of the Italian Campaign of World War II. It formed Field Marshal Albert Kesselring's last major line of defence along the summits of the northern part of the Apennine Mountains du ...

, meant to stop the Allied advance. It was the site of bitter combat between 9 and 21 April 1945, but most of the interred fell in late August 1944 between

Carrara Carrara ( ; ; , ) is a town and ''comune'' in Tuscany, in central Italy, of the province of Massa and Carrara, and notable for the white or blue-grey Carrara marble, marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione River, some Boxing the compass, ...

on the

Ligurian Sea The Ligurian Sea is an arm of the Mediterranean Sea. It lies between the Italian Riviera ( Liguria) and the island of Corsica. The sea is thought to have been named after the ancient Ligures people. Geography The sea borders Italy as far as ...

and the area surrounding

Rimini Rimini ( , ; or ; ) is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. Sprawling along the Adriatic Sea, Rimini is situated at a strategically-important north-south passage along the coast at the southern tip of the Po Valley. It is ...

. In the wake of the 22 December 1955 Accord on War Graves between the BRD & Italy signed in Bonn and ratified by the Italian legislature 12 August 1957 as Law 801,LEGGE 12 agosto 1957, n. 801: Ratifica ed esecuzione dell’Accordo tra la Repubblica italiana e la Repubblica Federale di Germania sulle tombe di guerra con annessi scambi di Note, concluso in Bonn il 22 dicembre 1955
Retrieved 16 March 2014 (ital.) in 1959 the German War Graves Commission entrusted oversight of the project to the architect

Dieter Oesterlen Dieter Oesterlen (April 5, 1911 – April 6, 1994) was a German architect. He re-built the Leineschloss, the Marktkirche, and the opera house all in Hanover after the destruction of World War II. Oesterlen's father was the chief engineer of a tu ...

. In the planning and execution he was assisted by the

landscape architect A landscape architect is a person who is educated in the field of landscape architecture. The practice of landscape architecture includes: site analysis, site inventory, site planning, land planning, planting design, grading, storm water manage ...

Walter Rossow Walter Rossow (28 January 1910 – 2 January 1992) was a leading German Landscape architect and, during his later years, a university professor. After 1945, together with leading architects of the time such as Egon Eiermann and Paul Baumgarten ...

and Ernst Cramer and the sculptor . The

metalwork Metalworking is the process of shaping and reshaping metals in order to create useful objects, parts, assemblies, and large scale structures. As a term, it covers a wide and diverse range of processes, skills, and tools for producing objects on e ...

was by

Fritz Kühn Fritz Kühn (29 April 1910 - 31 July 1967) was an East Germany, East German visual artist whose output included sculpture, metal-artwork and photography. Life Provenance and early years Fritz Kühn was born into a Protestant family in the Marien ...

.Francesco Collotti: ''Il paesaggio dei caduti. Dieter Oesterlen, Cimitero militare germanico.'' The reburied soldiers were collected from neighboring

battlefield A battlefield, battleground, or field of battle is the location of a present or historic battle involving ground warfare. It is commonly understood to be limited to the point of contact between opposing forces, though battles may involve troop ...

s and

churchyard In Christian countries, a churchyard is a patch of land adjoining or surrounding a church (building), church, which is usually owned by the relevant church or local parish itself. In the Scots language and in both Scottish English and Ulster S ...

s in the provinces of

, Metropolitan Florence, Forlì-Cesena,

Lucca Città di Lucca ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the Serchio River, in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. The city has a population of about 89,000, while its Province of Lucca, province has a population of 383,9 ...

Modena Modena (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. It has 184,739 inhabitants as of 2025. A town, and seat of an archbis ...

, Pesaro and Urbino,

Pisa Pisa ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Tuscany, Central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for the Leaning Tow ...

Pistoia Pistoia (; ) is a city and ''comune'' in the Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of a province of the same name, located about north-west of Florence and is crossed by the Ombrone Pistoiese, a tributary of the River Arno. It is a typic ...

Ravenna Ravenna ( ; , also ; ) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire during the 5th century until its Fall of Rome, collapse in 476, after which ...

and

Reggio Emilia Reggio nell'Emilia (; ), usually referred to as Reggio Emilia, or simply Reggio by its inhabitants, and known until Unification of Italy, 1861 as Reggio di Lombardia, is a city in northern Italy, in the Emilia-Romagna region. It has about 172,51 ...

;volksbund.de zum Futa-Pass
Retrieved 16 March 2014 and a number of remains were also identified. With 30,683 graves it is the largest German cemetery in Italy.

Cemetery and Monument

The cemetery covers 12 hectaresarchitetturatoscana.it with 16,000

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

headstone A gravestone or tombstone is a marker, usually stone, that is placed over a grave. A marker set at the head of the grave may be called a headstone. An especially old or elaborate stone slab may be called a funeral stele, stela, or slab. The u ...

s on 72 natural lawns, enclosed by a spiral 2000 meter long wall with 67

quarried A quarry is a type of open-pit mining, open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock (geology), rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some juri ...

crosses. Each pair of graves is marked with a 70×140 cm stone. The cemetery is capped by the pyramid-like peak at the end of the spiral wall. This last section of the wall encloses a "Court of Honor", beneath which is the

crypt A crypt (from Greek κρύπτη (kryptē) ''wikt:crypta#Latin, crypta'' "Burial vault (tomb), vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, Sarcophagus, sarcophagi, or Relic, religiou ...

with 397 graves. A smaller crypt, named the "Cervia Room", contains gravestones from the former war cemetery at

Cervia Cervia () is a seaside resort town in the province of Ravenna, located in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna. Cervia is a major seaside resort in Emilia-Romagna, North Italy. Its population was 28,983 at the 2023 census. It is mainly ...

. The cemetery was dedicated on 28 June 1969.

Gallery

File:FirenzuolaSoldatenfriedhofFutapassEingang.JPG, Entrance File:FirenzuolaSoldatenfriedhofFutapassMonumentInside1.JPG, Memorial wall of the crypt File:FirenzuolaSoldatenfriedhofFutapassMonumentInside2.JPG, ''Cervia-Raum'' or small crypt

Bibliography

*Birgit Urmson: ''German and United States Second World War Military Cemeteries in Italy: Cultural Perspectives'' (Transatlantic Aesthetics and Culture Vol. 8) (Bern 2018, pb.) * Francesco Collotti: ''Il paesaggio dei caduti. Dieter Oesterlen, Cimitero militare germanico.''
Online version at academia.edu

References

External links

*
Abstract of Urmson monograph
at RIHA Journal
Cimitero militare germanico
at architetturatoscana.it (in Italian)

(in German) {{coord, 44.096125, 11.272047, region:IT-FI_type:landmark, display=title German War Graves Commission War cemeteries in Italy Buildings and structures in Tuscany Buildings and structures completed in 1969