Montjovet, the former cemetery becomes a wonderful green area

One thousand square meters recovered right in the heart of the town, the work is completed. The Garden of Memory of Lillaz collects monuments to war victims

MONTJOVET. A thousand square meters of greenery recovered in the center of the town. The redevelopment work completed in recent weeks of the former cemetery of Lillaz has returned to the community a strategic area in terms of position and size.

And all to be experienced. The Garden of Remembrance (Le Jardin de la Mémoire) was inaugurated here last Sunday, strongly supported by the municipal administration led by the mayor Jean-Christophe Nigra who attended the traditional ribbon cutting. “We are very happy with the final result of the works – comments the mayor – and to be able to bring together in one place, the monuments to the fallen, to which this year the plaque created as part of the celebrations linked to the centenary of the translation of the body of the Unknown Soldier. We would have liked to name the area after the late Orfeo Cout, former deputy mayor and regional councilor, but ten years have not passed since his death ». The atmosphere of abandonment is only a memory. The cemetery area was built in the second part of the nineteenth century on the basis of a project dating back to 1878.

Decommissioned in 1998, it was replaced by the new cemetery built in the Berriaz hamlet. The space had therefore progressively lost its active function on a civil and religious level, while retaining its role as an affective witness.

The graves of the dead had already been moved to Berriaz between 2006 and 2007.

The project drawn up by architect Nicoletta Gallina for an investment of just over 200 thousand euros financed in part by the Valle d’Aosta Region and in part by the municipal coffers, has taken over and updated a previous project from 2005 and redesigned the area and converted the use of the only building still present, the funeral chapel, which has been arranged and transformed to accommodate new exhibitions in the future. The entire walls that used to be in very bad conditions of conservation now shine thanks to the laying of a new layer of plaster. The large central portion once covered with weeds is now occupied by a green lawn and walkways where there are waste bins and benches. The most valuable tombstones have been recovered and monuments to the fallen and to the Alpine troops have also been installed on the site. The site, albeit with a renewed look, will somehow preserve its ancient vocation by becoming Le Jardin de la Mémoire, the Garden of Memory.Amelio Ambrosi