Trieste’s International Past And The Soldiers That Never Left It

words and photography: Alessandra Ressa

As a traveler, I find that the best hidden secrets are often to be found in cemeteries, and no city other than Trieste holds this to be true. Its international past, culture, troubled history and controversial celebrities are all to be found in the graves that cover the hills of Sant’Anna, where for almost two centuries folks of different ethnic groups, religions, nationalities and political stand have been resting side by side in eternal peace. Here, in the quiet setting of the former military cemetery, lay the mortal remains of 33 British soldiers who died in Trieste following the end of World War II, between 1946 and 1954.

These young Brits lost their lives while serving with the Allied forces immediately after the end of the conflict, in the attempt to maintain stability in this troubled land. In the years between 1945 and 1954 Trieste had in fact become a hotspot for international powers. The city, which had become the Free Territory of Trieste, was fiercely contended between the Western world and Tito’s Yugoslavia. The Anglo-American occupation force spent 9 years trying to negotiate a compromise, which was eventually reached in 1954. Trieste was to remain Italian, while all the Italian territories in the Balkan peninsula were handed to Yugoslavia.

The tombstones are strikingly white and well tended. Fortunately, the British military corner of the Sant’Anna cemetery has not suffered the neglect other graves sadly display. The British soldiers all belonged to different regiments (several were the members of the Lancashire Regiment) and to the military police. Apart from their cruel destiny, they also had young age in common.

We don’t precisely know in what circumstances these soldiers died in Trieste. We can only assume, from the newspaper reports of the time, that they perished during the frequent clashes with Triestini, who saw in the Anglo-American occupation forces the new foreign enemy. We learn that a few were fatally injured in car accidents. Today, although Trieste’s British military cemetery seems largely forgotten, the epitaph on one of the tumbstones hopes for remembrance, “there’s a place in our hearts called memory lane”. 

But the unexpected finds in the former military cemetery are not over, because standing next to the British soldiers is an unusual monument, a stone obelisk with a red star in remembrance of the 104 Russian soldiers who died during the fight for the liberation of Trieste against the nazi occupation. Of those, 36 were Kazakhs. Further away, another impressive funerary monument is dedicated to the fallen of the Yugoslav liberation army and to all the partisans who joined the fight against nazi Germany in Trieste. A little behind this monument, another red star on a tumbstone stands alone to recall the extreme sacrifice of another 29 Russian soldiers who died in Trieste on may 2^nd, 1945.