The Material Heritage of the First World War in the Julian Region: from Sites of “Secular Pilgrimages” to Destinations of Cultural Tourism

The Julian March/Region (Venezia Giulia) represents a unique case study for research on war-related material heritage. In fact, it is one of the European regions (in a geographical and thus cross-border sense) that served as the stage for both world wars. This left behind not only material evidence from the time of the events themselves – such as trenches, fortifications, and bunkers built and used during the conflicts – but also monuments built afterward to commemorate the events as well as the millions who lost their lives on the battlefield. These heritage sites soon became destinations for memory tourism – like nowadays. However, an important diversity subsists: while in the interwar years these places were destinations of “secular pilgrimages” by war veterans as well as common people sensitive to the nationalist rhetoric during the interwar period, from the second postwar onwards, the tourists of memory who visit these places are motivated by cultural purpose. Therefore, this article aims to examine these two different forms of memory tourism in relation to the Julian context. To this end, it is based primarily on documents produced by prefectures and police officers in the interwar years as well as letters and bulletins from war veterans’associations and tourism publications issued in that period.