Giuseppe Ungaretti: Poet and Soldier between Karst and Isonzo

The “Friends of Castelnuovo” Association, as part of the celebrations for GO! 2025 European Capital of Culture, invites you to spend an afternoon on the Karst of Castelnuovo, at the Castelvecchio estate in the municipality of Sagrado (GO), where the unpublished book on the graffiti of the Villa Veneta Hofer-Hohenlohe, “Lacrime Vive”, will be presented. These graffiti were left on the marble slabs of the Villa by unstable soldiers during World War I.

The screening of an unreleased short film about the poet Giuseppe Ungaretti as a soldier, who returns to the places of war where he found inspiration for the poems in "Porto Sepolto." "Echo of the Carso" by Emanuele Flangini. Additionally, a guided tour by historian Silvo Stok through Ungaretti Park, music by the violin duo Grandi, Carlo, and Laura, and a performance by the "Costumi Tradizionali Bisiachi" group.

GIUSEPPE UNGARETTI: POET AND SOLDIER BETWEEN THE KARST AND THE ISONZO A day of remembrance, art, and testimony in the heart of the Great War Sagrado (GO), November 9, 2025 The stone of the Karst preserves memory. In the trenches, in the sinkholes, in the graffiti carved by the trembling hands of soldiers. Memory does not die: it transforms into poetry, into testimony, into art that transcends time.

On Sunday, November 9, 2025, the Tenuta di Castelvecchio in Sagrado hosts an extraordinary event dedicated to Giuseppe Ungaretti, poet and soldier, who witnessed the hell of the Karst trenches during the First World War. A day that intertwines history, literature, cinema, and folk tradition in an immersive journey through the places where three hundred thousand men lost their lives between 1915 and 1917.

The event, organized by the Friends of Castelnuovo Association in collaboration with the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, the Castelvecchio Agricultural Company, the Municipality of Sagrado, and as part of GO! 2025 - Nova Gorica-Gorizia European Capital of Culture, represents a moment of collective reflection on the trauma of war and the power of memory.

TWO WORKS, ONE TESTIMONY "LIVE TEARS - THE GRAFFITI OF VILLA HOHENLOHE IN CASTELNUOVO" At 5:00 PM, Mirella Della Valle and Lucio Fabi (Edizioni della Laguna) will present their book dedicated to the graffiti that soldiers carved into the walls of Villa Hohenlohe, transformed into a field hospital during the conflict. Names, dates, last words. Messages of love and desperation. Prayers and curses. The graffiti are the direct voice of those who knew they might not return, the urge to leave a trace before the void swallowed up even their memories.

Della Valle and Fabi have accomplished an archaeological and emotional feat, restoring dignity and a voice to those writings that too often go unnoticed. They weren't yet archives. They were men. And their fingers carved the stone so that memory would survive. "ECHO OF THE CARSO" - SHORT FILM BY EMANUELE FLANGINI

At 7:00 PM, the day culminates with the world premiere of the short film "Eco del Carso," by Emanuele Flangini, produced by Barbara Favaro and Mirella Della Valle for BELS MOVIE and High Point View, starring Paolo Massaria and Damjan Gomisel. The film, inspired by Sergio and Elisa Vittori's seminal book "The Great War on the Carso of Castelnovo in the First Six Battles of the Isonzo," is a visionary journey into the broken soul of Giuseppe Ungaretti.

Director's Statement "What I'm telling isn't a physical return," explains director Emanuele Flangini. "It's a journey of the soul. The final journey. Ungaretti, before dying—the film ends on June 1, 1970—returns with his soul to that place that offended him, that cut him off. Not with his feet, but with the memory that never became the past." "It's a journey between two souls separated by time but united by trauma. The unaware soul of the young soldier who, faced with absolute horror, develops a poetic language as the only possible means of survival. And the elderly soul who has become an archive of that horror, who carries within him three hundred thousand dead and can only whisper: 'Death is paid for by living.'"

The dimension is dreamlike because the memory of trauma does not follow the laws of chronological time. Past and present coexist, overlap, and dialogue. The young man writes so as not to die. The old man returns to finally lay aside that burden.

But there is no redemption possible. There is only testimony." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KufJolYUVdU

THE PROGRAM OF THE DAY

3:30 PM - GUIDED TOUR OF THE UNGARETTI PARK Historian Silvo Stok will accompany the public through the paths of memory, where Ungaretti fought, lived, and wrote.

Where he transformed horror into verses so stark they still resonate today.

MUSICAL EVENT: The Grandi Duo (Carlo Grandi and Laura Grandi on violin) of the Thomas Schippers Association will offer a sonic counterpoint to the memory of the landscape, intertwining notes and silences as Ungaretti intertwined words and voids.

5:00 PM - PRESENTATION OF "LACRIME VIVE" (LIVE TEARS) Mirella Della Valle and Lucio Fabi will present their book on the graffiti of Villa Hohenlohe, voices carved in stone by those who knew they might not return. SONGS AND DANCES BY THE "GRUPPO COSTUMI TRADIZIONALI BISIACHI" (BISIACHI TRADITIONAL COSTUME GROUP) Local folk culture as a root of resistance and continuity, a celebration of a land that has seen too much death yet continues to generate life.

7:00 PM - SCREENING OF "ECHO OF THE CARSO" The short film by Emanuele Flangini.

A visionary immersion in the final journey of Giuseppe Ungaretti's soul. AT THE END - REFRESHMENT BECAUSE TODAY In an age of short memory, where the wars of the twentieth century seem so distant, this day reaffirms that trauma has no chronology. It is transmitted. It replicates. Not as memory, but as a form, a way of being in the world that we carry within us without knowing why. Book and film dialogue in testifying to the same desperate need: to leave a trace.

Soldiers carve walls. Ungaretti writes verses. Both say: "I was here. I saw. I heard. Don't let all this disappear." This day offers no consolation. It offers testimony. And it reminds us that looking away is never neutral: it is complicity with oblivion. PRACTICAL INFORMATION Date: Sunday, November 9, 2025 Location: Tenuta di Castelvecchio, Carso di Castelnuovo - Sagrado (GO) Entrance: Free FULL PROGRAM • 3:30 pm: Guided tour of the Ungaretti Park (Silvo Stok)

• Musical event - Duo Grandi (Thomas Schippers Association) • 5.00 pm: Presentation of "Lacrime Vive" (Mirella Della Valle, Lucio Fabi in conversation with Prof. Guido Alliney) • Songs and dances - Bisiachi Traditional Costume Group

• 7.00 pm: Screening of "Eco del Carso" by Emanuele Flangini

• At the end: Refreshments ORGANIZERS Friends of Castelnuovo Association Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia Castelvecchio Agricultural Company Municipality of Sagrado GO! 2025 - Nova Gorica-Gorizia European Capital of Culture PARTNERS Municipality of Gorizia Municipality of Monfalcone Thomas Schippers Association Obbiettivo Immagine Cultural Association

PATRONAGE I am Friuli Venezia Giulia Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia

PRESS CONTACTS Mirella Della Valle - m.dellavalle@castelvecchio.com M- 3356123292 Emanuele Flangini belsmovie@gmail.com M- 3516642604

CREDITS "ECO DEL CARSO" Directed by: Emanuele Flangini Starring: Paolo Massaria, Damjan Gomisel Production: BELS MOVIE, High Point View Producers: Barbara Favaro, Mirella Della Valle Inspired by the book: "The Great War on the Carso of Castelnovo in the first six battles of the Isonzo" by Sergio and Elisa Vittori "An entire night / thrown next to / a comrade / massacred [...] / I wrote / letters full of love. / I have never been / so / attached to life." Giuseppe Ungaretti, "Veglia", 23 December 1915 In memory of those who did not return.