Italian War Memorial Church
From outside the gigantic brick sanctuary is an architectural marvel.Its location was chosen with great care to make it the perfect resting place. The serenity of the shrine is enhanced by a tree-lined drive and manicured lawns dotted with cone-shaped trees against the backdrop of the picturesque Nyeri Hill.
The Italian War Memorial Church in Nyeri is not your ordinary Catholic sanctuary.Located a few metres from the Ihururu road about five kilometres from Nyeri Town, the sanctuary houses the remains of 676 mostly Italian soldiers captured by the British during the Second World War.Vaults containing the remains of African soldiers, mostly from Somaliland, who could not be interred in the church because of their faith, are in another structure a few metres outside. They had fought alongside the Italian soldiers
The walls of the church are lined with rows of vaults with the remains of the fallen soldiers. The name and date of death are etched on each vault.In front of the rows of simple wooden pews and just before the altar is a marble-lined tomb. It is that of the Duke of Aosta, Prince Amedeo Savoia-Aosta, the leader of the soldiers.Benito Mussolini, who led Italy into the Second World War, had in 1937 made Prince Amedeo commander-in-chief of the Italian forces in East Africa.
Unlike your ordinary Catholic church where Mass is held virtually every day, Mass here is held once a year when scores of Italian families, friends and government officials throng the beautiful brick-walled compound to pay homage to their country’s fallen soldiers.For Italy, November 4, is a day set aside to remember the soldiers who died for the country, explains Italian ambassador to Kenya, Mr Pierandrea Magistrati.
For Italians living in Kenya, the day was this year marked on Saturday, November 6.Italian families and government officials led by Mr Magistrati, a few nuns of Italian origin and a handful of curious local residents gathered at the church.The Italian and Kenyan flags fluttered at the entrance. Green, white and red ribbons hung in the interior of the church. Prince Amedeo’s tomb and the altar were similarly draped in the colours of the Italian flag.
Throughout the one-hour Mass conducted by an African priest in flawless Italian amid soft lighting from giant candles, two armed soldiers resplendent in black and white uniform stood at attention on each side of the altar.Ms Halina Pellin says her family has been coming here for the last 58 years to pay tribute to their father’s cousin, Pellin Armando who, according to her, died on August 8, 1946 after he and her father were captured by the British in Ethiopia.
“I never met him,” says Halina wistfully as she strokes the vault bearing his remains.“When he died, he was a British prisoner of war alongside my father.”
Like many of his fellow soldiers, Armando had been arrested by the British in Ethiopia and taken to Kenya as a prisoner of war. Many of the captives, including Armando and Prince Amedeo, died of malaria and tuberculosis in the war camps.One of the legacies of their captivity in Kenya is the Mai-Mahiu road built in the scenic escarpment on the floor of the Rift Valley. According to ambassador Magistrati, the Italian government has a duty to remember the soldiers who die for their country. He said the Italian government spends 6,000 Euros (about Sh673,000) a year to maintain this shrine.
The Italian government and its nationals living in Kenya funded the construction of the church in 1952.
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