A mining well, dug at the beginning of the 20th century to intercept a vein of coal and soon abandoned due to its unproductivity, in May 1945 became a place of summary executions by Tito’s communist partisans for thousands of Italians from all backgrounds: civilians, soldiers, carabinieri, financiers, police officers and prison custody, fascists and anti-fascists, members of the National Liberation Committee, first destined for the internment camps set up in Slovenia and subsequently informed in Basovizza.
After being taken from the houses of Trieste, during a few days of a strict curfew they were transported by death wagons to Basovizza and with their hands torn by iron wire and often tied together in chains, they were pushed in groups towards the edge of the abyss. A volley of machine guns at the first made everyone fall into the abyss. On the bottom, those who did not find instant death after a flight of 200 meters, continued to agonize between the spasms of the wounds and the lacerations reported in the fall between the rock spikes. Many victims were first stripped and tortured.
Declared a National Monument in 1992, it has now become the main memorial – a symbol for the families of the infoibati and deportees who died in concentration camps in Yugoslavia and of the associations of Italians exiled from Istria, Rijeka and Dalmatia, who remember the victims here. of the violence of 1943-1945. Remembrance Day is a national civil solemnity celebrated on February 10 each year. Established with law no. 92 of March 30, 2004 “The Republic recognizes February 10 as the” Day of Remembrance “in order to preserve and renew the memory of the tragedy of the Italians and of all the victims of sinkholes, of the exodus from their lands of Istrians, Rijekers and Dalmatians in the second postwar period and of the more complex affair of the eastern border “.
In 2007 the new arrangement of the Memorial was inaugurated,
which since 2008 has also been equipped with a Documentation Center managed by the National League in collaboration with the Municipality of Trieste.
