Italy 1943–1945
Polish War Cemetery, Bologna (San Lazzaro)
Polish war cemetery
The story
Here lie 1,432 soldiers of General Anders' Polish II Corps who died in 1944–45, many in the last offensive and the drive on Bologna, which Polish troops entered on 21 April 1945. The inscription reads that they fell on Italian soil fighting for a free Poland, a cause that, for most of them, the peace did not deliver.
What to look for
Note the different headstone shapes for the soldiers' different faiths, and the ages: many were deportees released from the Soviet Union in 1942.
Plan your visit
Via Giuseppe Dozza, on the eastern edge of Bologna near the A14 San Lazzaro exit; free. The Museo Memoriale della Libertà (Via Dozza 24) nearby opens by appointment — check before you go.
Nearby sites
- Sacrario dei Partigiani, Piazza del Nettuno, Bologna · 5 km
- Sacrario dei Caduti, Marzabotto · 21 km
- Monte Sole Historical Park — Casaglia · 23 km
- Argenta — the Gap · 38 km
- Argenta Gap War Cemetery · 39 km
- German War Cemetery, Futa Pass · 43 km
All 96 sites in Italy 1943–1945 →
Into Europe: Italy 1943–1945
A free field guide for your phone: the route, the maps and the stories built in, even with no signal. The places of the Allied campaign in Italy, from the Sicily landings of July 1943 through Salerno, the Winter Line, Ortona, Cassino and Anzio, Rome, the Gothic Line and the final battles on the Senio and the Po in April 1945.
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