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Fascism and Catholicism: A Case Study of the Sacrario dei Caduti Fascisti in the Crypt of San Domenico, Siena

Open University

By means of a detailed and specific case-study, this article contributes to the history of the relationship between catholicism and fascism in Italy. After noting the profound ambiguity that was characteristic of relations between the church and the regime — not least because of the tendency for fascism to present itself in religious terms, especially in relation to the memorialization of its dead — the article takes up a recent suggestion that the cooperation between catholicism and fascism in Siena in the mid 1930s constituted a textbook example of the wider consensus between church and regime in Italy in this period. It does so by analysing the origins and official inauguration of the Sienese Sacrario dei Caduti Fascisti located in the crypt of the church of San Domenico. It argues that the latter event, in November 1938, amounted to a moment of de facto syncretism. Finally, the article reflects on the subsequent history of the crypt and the way in which the sacrario has been relegated to the margins of Sienese memory and historical recollection.

Key Words: Catholicism • Facism • Fascist cult of the dead • Siena

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