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The Living Museum of Memory in Colle San Magno: Stories about the Gustav Line in the Comino Valley
The Living Museum of Memory is located in Colle San Magno, in the heart of the Comino Valley, a few miles from Cassino. The museum was established in 2004 to collect testimonies from the Second World War, when the town found itself on the Gustav Line, and fighting devastated the territory between January and May 1944. The building is in Via Roma, in the historic centre rebuilt after the bombing.
The Museum Sections
The exhibition space is spread over three rooms. In the first there are uniforms, weapons, helmets, mess tins and soldiers' personal belongings, recovered from the woods and fields of the valley. The second room displays period photographs, military documents and letters from evacuated civilians. The third is dedicated to oral testimonies: videos with interviews with survivors and audio recordings recounting the bombing, the evacuation, the liberation. This material was collected before the witnesses disappeared.
The Territory
Colle San Magno lies 15 kilometres from Cassino and 10 kilometres from Atina. The museum is run by volunteers from the local association who know the history of the territory. In the surrounding area there are bunkers, trenches and memorial stones along the paths on the Monti della Meta, material traces of those months of war that marked the history of the valley.
