The year was 1922 when Benito Mussolini asked a trusted veterinarian, Antonio Molón, to allow his children to bury their beloved pet in a lot behind his home. It had also been Molón himself who had given the bird to the children of ‘Il Duce’ -the nickname by which Mussolini was called-, and thus was founded the first pet cemetery in Italy: Casa Rosa.
During the same year, Mussolini was assuming power in Italy with the infamous March on Rome, in which the director and founder of the National Fascist Party ordered the Blackshirts to flock to the Italian capital and thus became Prime Minister of the nation.
In this way, the years of Italian fascism began, which had their highest point of power during the mandate of Adolf Hitler in Germany. Italy, along with Japan and Spain, became one of the Axis countries, the international cooperation camp for the establishment of fascist authoritarian regimes in Europe and Asia.
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The chicken that was buried there
Now, while the former dictator was planning his rise in the country, his children played with a chicken that had been given to them by Antonio Molón.
Unfortunately, the bird died a short time later and Mussolini asked the vet to let them bury him in a lot behind his home.so that they could put flowers and visit the grave of their beloved pet.
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There was no reason to refuse, and so it was done. Shortly after, animal owners continued to arrive, particularly dogs and cats, who wanted to bury their companions and have a place to visit and remember them.
In addition to the chicken of Mussolini’s children, the cemetery received pets from the Savoy family -the last royal family in Italy-, from the actress Brigitte Bardot and from ministers and politicians who have remained anonymous and the memory of Antonio’s son Cool, Luigi.
The cemetery today
Casa Rosa has now been in operation for a hundred years and has become the oldest animal cemetery in the country.
According to the ‘EFE’ press agency, it is located on the outskirts of Rome, with a fence guarded by the statues of two stone dogs and an inscription that reads: ‘Infirmary and burial’. Now, it has managed to house more than a thousand animals.
The cemetery still has operating permits and Luigi Molón responded to ‘EFE’ that he doubts that they will ever be taken away. The sixty-year-old also said that he receives calls every day from people who want to bury their animals there.
“Some owners can be a bit over the top”, Molón confessed, because there are inscriptions on some tombs in which things like: ‘Your father and mother miss you’ or other expressions of affection that are excessive for him.
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The owners usually continue with the activities that they carried out with their animals, “They play with them, talk to them, and wash their graves. It is as if the thread were kept alive”Molón told the aforementioned agency.
On the other hand, the man commented that the contracts for the graves have a duration of five years. You can find stuffed animals, flowers and hundreds of small tombs in which the memories of the pets of Roman families have been recorded.
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