Pula exiles gathered in the city of the Arena

The exiles of Pula gathered in the city of the Arena

The 9th cultural meeting of the Association of Italians of Pula and Istria – Free Municipality of Pula in Exile took place from 13 to 66 June in the city of the Arena. The official opening was held by President Graziella Cazzaniga Palermo, with the usual “toast and two chats” and the subsequent meeting of the Board of Directors.

On Saturday 10th we went to Vines near Albona to visit the homonymous sinkhole as a sign of homage to the victims. The Vines sinkhole or sinkhole or fossa dei Colombi, also known as the Goglia sinkhole (in the local Croatian Chakavian dialect: jama Golji), is an abyssal sinkhole, a karst cavity shaped like a puean of natural origin. After a walk in the woods, following a path marked days before by the Association's councilors, we reached the site. The president brought a bunch of red roses, which each of those present threw into the precipice. A minute of silence followed in which everyone was able to send a prayer.

The foiba, which is located on a small hill, has a sheer entrance (at the beginning 146 m deep, then continues after a flat terrace, sloping and rocky, up to a depth of 226 m). It has an entrance, in the edge of a slightly oval shape, with the following dimensions: a width of about 8 or 10 meters and a length of about 15 or 16 meters; the entire area of the opening is delimited by a metal cable or a net, to signal the danger and ensure safety.

This sinkhole owes its name to the fact that wood pigeons often took refuge in its ravines. For a certain period towards the end of 1943, they no longer took refuge there, due to the acrid smell of corpses coming from the bodies thrown into the depths of this sinkhole, a smell that also facilitated the discovery of the mortal remains. In the local Croatian dialect Chakavian, the Pigeon's Sinkhole, also called Faraguni, is nicknamed Gospetova Jama or Gospe Jama, which means Cave of the Lady or of the Madonna, and is located in the Faraguni area near the hamlet of Vines (in Croatian: Vinež), which was first part of the Municipality of Arsia and today of that of Albona, in south-eastern Istria now Croatian, about 3 km from the center of Albonese.

From this sinkhole, between 16 and 25 October 1943, the human remains of 84 bodies were recovered (72 Italians, of whom 6 were women, according to another source only 3 women, and 12 German soldiers). Of the victims, 51 were initially recognized. In this sinkhole, some victims were probably thrown while still alive. The murdered were also thrown with a stone tied to their hands with wire; or tied together in such a way that a single victim hit by a gun dragged his still-alive companion tied to him to the bottom of the sinkhole. The criminal perpetrators then threw hand grenades into the sinkhole, in order to cause the walls of the sinkhole to collapse, perhaps to facilitate the decomposition of the bodies, thus making their eventual subsequent recognition impossible. The victims were extracted, with the occasional support of the mine rescue team of the Società Anonima Carbonifera Arsa, by the fire brigade team of Pola, led by the non-commissioned officer Marshal Arnaldo Harzarich, of the 41st Corps stationed in Pola. The discovery of this sinkhole, as a place of execution and burial, is due to the report of a certain Monti di Albona. The only survivors who survived this sinkhole were Giovanni Radeticchio and Graziano Udovisi, who as witnesses recounted the tragic events that took place there also in the spring of 1945.

In the afternoon, a football match between Grion Pola (a team of exiles) and Mosaico Istriano (a team representing the Italian Community of Pula) took place on the Medulin field, with the latter winning 4-1. In the evening, a Gala Dinner was held with the local authorities, after which Stefano Rolle presented the book “Geppino Micheletti” by Duccio Vanni and then the documentary “Micheletti a Narni” was shown.

On Sunday 11 June the parish priest Don Rikardo Lekaj celebrated mass in Italian in the Cathedral of Pula and then there was a moment of recollection for the victims of the Vergarolla massacre of 18 August 1946, the bloodiest in the history of the Italian Republic, while the afternoon was dedicated to social activities: the general assembly of members with the reports of the president and auditors, the approval of the financial statements and the budget. In the evening a concert by the Lino Mariani choir took place, followed by the presentation of the exhibition “Sulle ali della bora” and, to follow, the awarding of the merit “Istria Terra amata” to professor Gianni Oliva, hosted by Lucia Bellaspiga (journalist of occur).

On Monday, June 12, there was a bus trip to Piran, a meeting with representatives of the local Italian Community and a shared lunch. For the final evening at the hotel, the group attended the theatrical performance “I Polesanich va in vacanza”, staged by the Italian Community of Pula.

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