November 11, 2025 • 13 mins
Step beyond the veil with The Grim as host Kristin explores the haunting ossuaries of San Martino and Solferino in Lombardy, Italy—where thousands of bones rest in solemn tribute beneath cypress groves.
The Battle of Solferino and San Martino (1859) was a brutal clash that forged modern Italy and inspired the creation of the Red Cross. Here, in sacred charnel houses, skulls and bones are arranged in silent testimony to war's cost and Italy's fight for unity.
Discover how Jean-Henri Dunant's compassion amid the carnage gave rise to humanitarian law, and how the Tower of San Martino now watches over fields once soaked in blood.
No ghost stories echo here—only bones that remember the Risorgimento's price.
📍 Ossuaries of San Martino della Battaglia & Solferino, Lombardy, Italy
⚰️ Battle: June 24, 1859
🕊️ Silent testimony to war and unity
Perfect for: Italian history enthusiasts, ossuary visitors, Red Cross history buffs, bone chapel tourists
🎧 Descend with The Grim into Italy's most solemn monuments.
Support The Grim by buying a cup of our next Grave Grind!
https://buymeacoffee.com/kristinlopes
Find All of The Grim's Social Links At:
https://www.the-grim.com/socialmedia
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:13):
Grim morning and welcome to the grim.
I'm your host, Kristen.
On today's episode, we'll beopening the gate and entering
the ossuaries of San Martino andSolvarino, located in Lombardy,
Italy.
The aroma of coffee mingles inthe air.
The gates stand open.
Step carefully.
(00:33):
It's time to descend into thehauntings of history.
When we think of Italy, many ofus Americans picture Rome,
pizza, wine, and of course thesun-soaked beauty of southern
Italy's coast.
What we often forget is thenorthern alpine region and its
rich complex history.
As Americans, we're taught aboutour own revolution, but unless
(00:56):
you study history in college,Italy's long and winding road to
unification, that only we knowtoday, tends to be lost on us.
We might know bits of itsmedieval past before jumping
straight into the modern nation,missing centuries of stories in
between.
The ossuaries located inLombardy are two places that
many Americans might findespecially intriguing, precisely
(01:20):
because we've never heard ofthem.
But before we step inside, it'sworth defining what an ossuary
actually is.
If you've been with the groomsince season one, you may
remember the episode featuringPortugal's ossuaries.
But if you're new, or if it'sbeen a while, I've got you
covered.
An ossuary is a chest buildingor a site that serves as a final
(01:41):
resting place for skeletalremains.
The word comes from the Latinword os, meaning bone.
Ossuaries were often created asa practical solution to limited
burial spaces.
Bodies would first be buried intemporary graves, then after
several years, the bones werecarefully moved to a communal
resting place.
In a sense, it's a form of graverecycling, sacred, efficient,
(02:05):
and deeply symbolic.
The ossuaries in Lombardy, whilesacred, are also deeply symbolic
to Italy's fight forindependence.
The bones displayed within thesewalls tell a story of intrigue,
sacrifice, and national pride.
Those drawn to Teftophilia orthe macabre may have stumbled
across their images onlinealready.
(02:25):
Hauntingly beautiful Italianchapels that seem almost too
surreal to be real.
Behind their quiet facade lies asight both reverent and
unsettling, tall cabinetsstretching from the floor to
ceiling in the apse, filled notwith books but with human
skulls.
A narrow staircase descendsbehind the altar, leading to a
lower chamber where the rest ofthe remains rest in silence.
(02:48):
The bones of Italy's fallen sonslie within the ossuary itself.
Their presence felt in everystone and shadow.
What makes the ossuaries evenmore intriguing is that they
don't only hold Italian bones.
Within their sacred walls restthe remains of enemies and
allies alike.
A silent history left it carvedin bone and dust.
(03:09):
To understand why and who thesemen were, we first must return
to the battlefield that claimedthem.
We're going back to June 24,1859, when the fields of
Sofferino ran red.
The clash known in Italy as theBattle of Soferino and San
Martino was not merely a fightbetween nations, but a brutal
turning point in the birth ofmodern Italy.
(03:31):
Battle marked a decisive momentin the Second Italian War of
Independence.
A blood-soaked chapter in thestory of the Risorgiamento,
Italy's struggle to rise fromcenturies of division into
unity.
For generations, the peninsulahad been carved apart, claimed
by foreign powers, France,Austria, Spain, and fractured
(03:52):
into rival states.
Before dawn, the French advancemoved into the northern sector
and soon clashed with Austrianforces.
While the center of thebattlefield remained fiercely
contested in Solfarino,Cavriana, and Volta Mantovana,
repeated attacks tore throughthe lines, and by mid-afternoon,
French reserves broke through atCavriana, shattering the
(04:14):
Austrian center and forcing ageneral retreat.
Under a merciless sun, nearly300,000 soldiers converged on
the rolling countryside.
One of the largest clashesEurope had seen sent Lepzeg in
1813.
Unlike modern wars, this one wascarried out with an ancient
echo.
Monarchs themselves led theirmen into battle for the last
(04:35):
time in history.
On the northern flank, Sardinianforces struck at dawn, moving
through the surrounding villagesof San Martino.
The Austrians held their groundwith overwhelming numbers, but
the Sardinians attackedrepeatedly, waves of soldiers
clashing against the defensivelines.
By evening, after a finaldesperate assault, the hills
(04:55):
were seized, and the Austriantroops withdrew into the shadows
of defeat.
The battle had raged on for morethan nine brutal hours.
When it ended, over 2,300Austrian soldiers lay dead, more
than 10,000 wounded, and 9,000were missing.
The Franco-Sardini Alliancesuffered nearly as many losses.
(05:16):
2,300 were killed, 12,000wounded, and thousands more
unaccounted for.
Reports from the field speak ofhorrors few could stomach today.
Wounded men shot or bayonetedwhere they fell, mercy abandoned
in the chaos of war.
Though the French andPiedmontese claimed victory, it
came at an unbearable cost.
(05:37):
The Austrians retreated tofortified strongholds, and the
campaign for a moment was over.
But the land of Lombardy wouldnever be the same.
Its oil had been baptized inblood.
When the smoke cleared, EmperorFranz Joseph would never take
the field in person again.
The land itself seemed togrieve, littered with the
wounded and the dead, the airstill trembling with cries that
(06:00):
refused to fade.
Among those who heard them was aSwiss man named Jean-Henri
Dunant.
Though not a soldier, he arrivedin the aftermath, witnessing the
carnage firsthand from Soferino.
Horrified by the suffering ofmen abandoned where they fell,
he gathered what help he could,local women, carriages, church
pews transformed into makeshiftbeds, intended to the soldiers
(06:23):
from both sides beneath thevaulted ceiling of the Dumo.
Those days though haunted him.
Dunat later wrote a memory ofSoferino, a book born from
horror and compassion.
From its pages would risesomething extraordinary, the
Geneva Conventions and thefounding of the International
Red Cross.
In the years that followed, thewounds of war refused to fade.
(06:45):
The fields where men once criedout for water and mercy became
sacred ground.
A graveyard without names.
Thousands of soldiers, French,Austrian, and Italian alike, lay
buried beneath the soil ofLombardy, their bodies claimed
by the earth that had witnessedtheir agony.
With so many fallen scatteredacross the fields of Soferino
(07:05):
and San Martino, proper burialswere impossible.
To prevent the stench of decay,the bodies were hastily covered
with soil in wide ditches.
A mass grave was far fromhygienic, but for
epidemicological reasons, healthlaws forbade exhumination until
at least 10 years had passed.
In 1870, the remains werefinally exhumed and placed
(07:27):
respectfully in two cardinalhouses, a church in Soferino and
a chapel in San Martino, becamethe final resting places for the
soldiers from both sides.
The small chapel of San Martinodella Battaglia was once a part
of the monastery of TesantaGiula in Brescia, was
transformed into an osuary afterthe war.
(07:48):
Its sacred walls, once monastic,now house the remains of
thousands of soldiers, where theechoes of war are etched into
bones.
Within its apse, 1,274 skullsare stacked in solemn rows,
while the crypt topped with aniron railing holds the bones of
2,619 soldiers.
(08:09):
Each fragment bears a silentwitness to the carnage of
Solfarino, a testament to thelives lost in the terrible cost
of nationhood.
The landscape surrounding thechapel is dotted with reminders
of the battle that once tore itapart.
Rising above the fields, thecircular tower of San Martino
dominates the horizon, a70-meter monument built in 1893
(08:32):
to honor Victor Emmanuel II andthe struggle for Italian
unification.
Visitors who climb its spiralstaircase are rewarded with
sweeping views of the region.
Inside the tower tells its ownstory.
Its walls adorned with bronzebusts and frescoes depicting the
fever and sacrifice of therisermento.
Behind the tower, a museumdisplays relics unearthed from
(08:55):
the battlefield, arms, cannons,uniforms, and the ordinary
belongings of men who fought andfell here.
Together they offer a deeperlook into a conflict that
forever helps shape Italy andthe world.
Now farfrote Martino, the Osareof Safarino, preserves another
chapter of that same darkhistory.
(09:15):
Tucked within a small ciphersgrove in the Via Saro, the
building rests on a gravel paththat leads to its solemn
entrance.
Once the parish church of SanPetro, the oldest house of
prayer in Solfarino, it wasnearly destroyed during the 1859
battle.
When the guns fell silent, timeitself became the healer.
(09:36):
By 1870, the church was rebornas the ossuary.
It is today.
The entrance still bears mosaicsof St.
Peter in Christ, crowned by astatue of the Madonna.
To the right, a memorial plaquehonors Henry Dunat's vision of
the Red Cross, inscribed withthe haunting phrase, Inter Arma
Caritas, among arms, charity.
(09:57):
Some skulls still bear terriblewounds, bullet holes, shattered
bone, mute evidence of theferocity that raged across these
hills.
Within its walls, two completeskeletons, once French soldiers,
stand as eternal witnesses.
In total, the ossuary holds1,413 skulls, and roughly 7,000
(10:19):
bones carefully arranged insidethe old church.
Within busts of French generalslime the walls, yet they pale
beside the staggering display ofskulls and the apse.
The grip below reveals stillmore bones, neatly arranged
beside the flags of France,Austria, and Italy.
Alongside the side altars, cagesbrim with stacked remains,
(10:39):
organized by type, while barredchambers hold complete skeletons
and further collections of thedead.
A short distance away, theInternational Red Cross Museum
carries the story forward.
Here in the same buildings thatonce sheltered the wounded, the
tale of human compassion bornfrom horror is preserved.
Proof that from the bones ofwar, mercy itself took shape.
(11:01):
In the Ossuaries, the skullsseem to stare back, their hollow
eyes catching the light inunsettling ways, but no stories
of hauntings are retold here.
Behind the iron bars, completeskeletons sit silently,
witnesses to a violence thatreshaped nations.
Even in museums nearby, theartifacts of guns, cannons,
(11:22):
uniforms, bear the imprints oflives abruptly ended, each a
piece of fragment of humansuffering frozen in time.
The Tower of San Martino loomsabove it all, a sental over a
landscape steeped in blood andmemory.
From its spiral staircase, theserene hills of Lake Garda and
beyond seem at odds with thehorrors that once unfolded here.
(11:44):
But if you look closer, at thebattlefield's echoes, they
persist.
The soil itself remembers thecries, the anguish, and the cost
of unification.
The grim recommends exploringthe San Martino della Begalia, a
haunting complex of monumentsand memorials to Italy's
unification, steeped also inhistory and beauty.
(12:05):
Though the names and stories ofthose who perished have faded,
their presence endures.
Stripped of flesh, reduced tobone, they leave an indelible
mark upon all who enter.
It's a sacrifice of blood forthe Italy we know today.
San Martino and Solferino aremore than history.
They're the mausoleums ofmemory, ossuaries of sacrifice.
(12:27):
Each skull, each bone, eachrelic whispers of patriotism,
horror, and fleeting humanity.
Here the risegimento is writtennot only in stone and scripture,
but in blood and silence.
And although centuries havepassed, the voices of Soferino
still linger, soft, unyieldingreminders that the birth of
(12:48):
nations is never without a cost.
For now, the stories of theossuaries of San Martino and
Sofarino slip back into stone,and the dead return to their
uneasy rest.
Yet they're never silent forlong.
Thank you for walking with usthrough the veil into the
ossuaries of San Martino andSofarino, descending once more
(13:09):
into the hauntings of history.
The gate is sealed, the veildrawn, yet death keeps no
calendar, and so we shallreturn, as we always do, on the
grim.
Grim morning and welcome to the grim.
I'm your host, Kristen.
On today's episode, we'll beopening the gate and entering
the ossuaries of San Martino andSolvarino, located in Lombardy,
Italy.
The aroma of coffee mingles inthe air.
The gates stand open.
Step carefully.
(00:33):
It's time to descend into thehauntings of history.
When we think of Italy, many ofus Americans picture Rome,
pizza, wine, and of course thesun-soaked beauty of southern
Italy's coast.
What we often forget is thenorthern alpine region and its
rich complex history.
As Americans, we're taught aboutour own revolution, but unless
(00:56):
you study history in college,Italy's long and winding road to
unification, that only we knowtoday, tends to be lost on us.
We might know bits of itsmedieval past before jumping
straight into the modern nation,missing centuries of stories in
between.
The ossuaries located inLombardy are two places that
many Americans might findespecially intriguing, precisely
(01:20):
because we've never heard ofthem.
But before we step inside, it'sworth defining what an ossuary
actually is.
If you've been with the groomsince season one, you may
remember the episode featuringPortugal's ossuaries.
But if you're new, or if it'sbeen a while, I've got you
covered.
An ossuary is a chest buildingor a site that serves as a final
(01:41):
resting place for skeletalremains.
The word comes from the Latinword os, meaning bone.
Ossuaries were often created asa practical solution to limited
burial spaces.
Bodies would first be buried intemporary graves, then after
several years, the bones werecarefully moved to a communal
resting place.
In a sense, it's a form of graverecycling, sacred, efficient,
(02:05):
and deeply symbolic.
The ossuaries in Lombardy, whilesacred, are also deeply symbolic
to Italy's fight forindependence.
The bones displayed within thesewalls tell a story of intrigue,
sacrifice, and national pride.
Those drawn to Teftophilia orthe macabre may have stumbled
across their images onlinealready.
(02:25):
Hauntingly beautiful Italianchapels that seem almost too
surreal to be real.
Behind their quiet facade lies asight both reverent and
unsettling, tall cabinetsstretching from the floor to
ceiling in the apse, filled notwith books but with human
skulls.
A narrow staircase descendsbehind the altar, leading to a
lower chamber where the rest ofthe remains rest in silence.
(02:48):
The bones of Italy's fallen sonslie within the ossuary itself.
Their presence felt in everystone and shadow.
What makes the ossuaries evenmore intriguing is that they
don't only hold Italian bones.
Within their sacred walls restthe remains of enemies and
allies alike.
A silent history left it carvedin bone and dust.
(03:09):
To understand why and who thesemen were, we first must return
to the battlefield that claimedthem.
We're going back to June 24,1859, when the fields of
Sofferino ran red.
The clash known in Italy as theBattle of Soferino and San
Martino was not merely a fightbetween nations, but a brutal
turning point in the birth ofmodern Italy.
(03:31):
Battle marked a decisive momentin the Second Italian War of
Independence.
A blood-soaked chapter in thestory of the Risorgiamento,
Italy's struggle to rise fromcenturies of division into
unity.
For generations, the peninsulahad been carved apart, claimed
by foreign powers, France,Austria, Spain, and fractured
(03:52):
into rival states.
Before dawn, the French advancemoved into the northern sector
and soon clashed with Austrianforces.
While the center of thebattlefield remained fiercely
contested in Solfarino,Cavriana, and Volta Mantovana,
repeated attacks tore throughthe lines, and by mid-afternoon,
French reserves broke through atCavriana, shattering the
(04:14):
Austrian center and forcing ageneral retreat.
Under a merciless sun, nearly300,000 soldiers converged on
the rolling countryside.
One of the largest clashesEurope had seen sent Lepzeg in
1813.
Unlike modern wars, this one wascarried out with an ancient
echo.
Monarchs themselves led theirmen into battle for the last
(04:35):
time in history.
On the northern flank, Sardinianforces struck at dawn, moving
through the surrounding villagesof San Martino.
The Austrians held their groundwith overwhelming numbers, but
the Sardinians attackedrepeatedly, waves of soldiers
clashing against the defensivelines.
By evening, after a finaldesperate assault, the hills
(04:55):
were seized, and the Austriantroops withdrew into the shadows
of defeat.
The battle had raged on for morethan nine brutal hours.
When it ended, over 2,300Austrian soldiers lay dead, more
than 10,000 wounded, and 9,000were missing.
The Franco-Sardini Alliancesuffered nearly as many losses.
(05:16):
2,300 were killed, 12,000wounded, and thousands more
unaccounted for.
Reports from the field speak ofhorrors few could stomach today.
Wounded men shot or bayonetedwhere they fell, mercy abandoned
in the chaos of war.
Though the French andPiedmontese claimed victory, it
came at an unbearable cost.
(05:37):
The Austrians retreated tofortified strongholds, and the
campaign for a moment was over.
But the land of Lombardy wouldnever be the same.
Its oil had been baptized inblood.
When the smoke cleared, EmperorFranz Joseph would never take
the field in person again.
The land itself seemed togrieve, littered with the
wounded and the dead, the airstill trembling with cries that
(06:00):
refused to fade.
Among those who heard them was aSwiss man named Jean-Henri
Dunant.
Though not a soldier, he arrivedin the aftermath, witnessing the
carnage firsthand from Soferino.
Horrified by the suffering ofmen abandoned where they fell,
he gathered what help he could,local women, carriages, church
pews transformed into makeshiftbeds, intended to the soldiers
(06:23):
from both sides beneath thevaulted ceiling of the Dumo.
Those days though haunted him.
Dunat later wrote a memory ofSoferino, a book born from
horror and compassion.
From its pages would risesomething extraordinary, the
Geneva Conventions and thefounding of the International
Red Cross.
In the years that followed, thewounds of war refused to fade.
(06:45):
The fields where men once criedout for water and mercy became
sacred ground.
A graveyard without names.
Thousands of soldiers, French,Austrian, and Italian alike, lay
buried beneath the soil ofLombardy, their bodies claimed
by the earth that had witnessedtheir agony.
With so many fallen scatteredacross the fields of Soferino
(07:05):
and San Martino, proper burialswere impossible.
To prevent the stench of decay,the bodies were hastily covered
with soil in wide ditches.
A mass grave was far fromhygienic, but for
epidemicological reasons, healthlaws forbade exhumination until
at least 10 years had passed.
In 1870, the remains werefinally exhumed and placed
(07:27):
respectfully in two cardinalhouses, a church in Soferino and
a chapel in San Martino, becamethe final resting places for the
soldiers from both sides.
The small chapel of San Martinodella Battaglia was once a part
of the monastery of TesantaGiula in Brescia, was
transformed into an osuary afterthe war.
(07:48):
Its sacred walls, once monastic,now house the remains of
thousands of soldiers, where theechoes of war are etched into
bones.
Within its apse, 1,274 skullsare stacked in solemn rows,
while the crypt topped with aniron railing holds the bones of
2,619 soldiers.
(08:09):
Each fragment bears a silentwitness to the carnage of
Solfarino, a testament to thelives lost in the terrible cost
of nationhood.
The landscape surrounding thechapel is dotted with reminders
of the battle that once tore itapart.
Rising above the fields, thecircular tower of San Martino
dominates the horizon, a70-meter monument built in 1893
(08:32):
to honor Victor Emmanuel II andthe struggle for Italian
unification.
Visitors who climb its spiralstaircase are rewarded with
sweeping views of the region.
Inside the tower tells its ownstory.
Its walls adorned with bronzebusts and frescoes depicting the
fever and sacrifice of therisermento.
Behind the tower, a museumdisplays relics unearthed from
(08:55):
the battlefield, arms, cannons,uniforms, and the ordinary
belongings of men who fought andfell here.
Together they offer a deeperlook into a conflict that
forever helps shape Italy andthe world.
Now farfrote Martino, the Osareof Safarino, preserves another
chapter of that same darkhistory.
(09:15):
Tucked within a small ciphersgrove in the Via Saro, the
building rests on a gravel paththat leads to its solemn
entrance.
Once the parish church of SanPetro, the oldest house of
prayer in Solfarino, it wasnearly destroyed during the 1859
battle.
When the guns fell silent, timeitself became the healer.
(09:36):
By 1870, the church was rebornas the ossuary.
It is today.
The entrance still bears mosaicsof St.
Peter in Christ, crowned by astatue of the Madonna.
To the right, a memorial plaquehonors Henry Dunat's vision of
the Red Cross, inscribed withthe haunting phrase, Inter Arma
Caritas, among arms, charity.
(09:57):
Some skulls still bear terriblewounds, bullet holes, shattered
bone, mute evidence of theferocity that raged across these
hills.
Within its walls, two completeskeletons, once French soldiers,
stand as eternal witnesses.
In total, the ossuary holds1,413 skulls, and roughly 7,000
(10:19):
bones carefully arranged insidethe old church.
Within busts of French generalslime the walls, yet they pale
beside the staggering display ofskulls and the apse.
The grip below reveals stillmore bones, neatly arranged
beside the flags of France,Austria, and Italy.
Alongside the side altars, cagesbrim with stacked remains,
(10:39):
organized by type, while barredchambers hold complete skeletons
and further collections of thedead.
A short distance away, theInternational Red Cross Museum
carries the story forward.
Here in the same buildings thatonce sheltered the wounded, the
tale of human compassion bornfrom horror is preserved.
Proof that from the bones ofwar, mercy itself took shape.
(11:01):
In the Ossuaries, the skullsseem to stare back, their hollow
eyes catching the light inunsettling ways, but no stories
of hauntings are retold here.
Behind the iron bars, completeskeletons sit silently,
witnesses to a violence thatreshaped nations.
Even in museums nearby, theartifacts of guns, cannons,
(11:22):
uniforms, bear the imprints oflives abruptly ended, each a
piece of fragment of humansuffering frozen in time.
The Tower of San Martino loomsabove it all, a sental over a
landscape steeped in blood andmemory.
From its spiral staircase, theserene hills of Lake Garda and
beyond seem at odds with thehorrors that once unfolded here.
(11:44):
But if you look closer, at thebattlefield's echoes, they
persist.
The soil itself remembers thecries, the anguish, and the cost
of unification.
The grim recommends exploringthe San Martino della Begalia, a
haunting complex of monumentsand memorials to Italy's
unification, steeped also inhistory and beauty.
(12:05):
Though the names and stories ofthose who perished have faded,
their presence endures.
Stripped of flesh, reduced tobone, they leave an indelible
mark upon all who enter.
It's a sacrifice of blood forthe Italy we know today.
San Martino and Solferino aremore than history.
They're the mausoleums ofmemory, ossuaries of sacrifice.
(12:27):
Each skull, each bone, eachrelic whispers of patriotism,
horror, and fleeting humanity.
Here the risegimento is writtennot only in stone and scripture,
but in blood and silence.
And although centuries havepassed, the voices of Soferino
still linger, soft, unyieldingreminders that the birth of
(12:48):
nations is never without a cost.
For now, the stories of theossuaries of San Martino and
Sofarino slip back into stone,and the dead return to their
uneasy rest.
Yet they're never silent forlong.
Thank you for walking with usthrough the veil into the
ossuaries of San Martino andSofarino, descending once more
(13:09):
into the hauntings of history.
The gate is sealed, the veildrawn, yet death keeps no
calendar, and so we shallreturn, as we always do, on the
grim.
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