On Saturday, November 23, 2024, a documentary photography exhibition, entitled “In My Heart Like a Wound: The Chiesanuova Concentration Camp and the Work of Friar Placido CORTESE” was inaugurated to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the martyrdom of Venerable Friar Placido CORTESE (1907-1944). The exhibition is on display in the Magnolia Cloister of the Basilica of St Anthony in Padua, Italy. It will remain open through January 16, 2025, from 8:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
This exhibition is the result of meticulous archival research conducted in Italy and Slovenia by Professor Antonio SPINELLI and Dr. Maria Grazia TORNISIELLO. It gives the public its first glimpse of historical documents and testimony that until now has been largely unknown by the people of Padua. It also serves as a solemn commemoration of the events that occurred in the Chiesanuova concentration camp [near Padua]. The camp later became the Mario ROMAGNOLI barracks, decommissioned in 2009. Moreover, the exhibition acknowledges the suffering of thousands of internees from former Yugoslavia, as well as the humanitarian efforts led particularly by Friar Placido CORTESE, our confrere from the Basilica of St. Anthony. The exhibition is being promoted by several organizations, including: The Italian Province of St. Anthony of Padua (Northern Italy); the Municipality of Padua (a sponsor of the exhibition); the 6A-Padua Neighborhood Council; the Association for Traveling in the Balkans; the National Museum of Contemporary History of Slovenia; the CASREC Center for University Studies on Resistance and Contemporary History – University of Padua (another sponsor of the exhibition); the Veneranda Arca di S. Antonio Institute; and the Diocese of Padua.
Editorial Staff
