The Italian Charnel House, Kobarid (), () is an Italian military shrine in Kobarid, Slovenia. Sited on the battlefield of Caporetto, it houses the remains of 7,014 Italians who fell during the battles of the Isonzo. Design and construction The work was initiated by the Italian state in 1936, during the period when Kobarid was in Italian territory. The Extraordinary Commissioner for the Honouring of the War Dead Ugo Cei commissioned Costruzioni Marchioro di Vicenza to build a series of ossuaries and war memorials, including Kobarid as well as Redipuglia and Monte Grappa. Work was completed at Kobarid in September 1938. At the core of the site is a small chapel on the Gradič hill dedicated to Saint Anthony of Padua and consecrated in 1696. The chapel contained frescoes by a local artist, Luna Šarf, but these were mostly lost during the adaptation of the site to the new memorial, and only the fresco depicting universal judgement remains. Beneath this the architect Giovanni Greppi built three octagonal modern structures rising below the baroque chapel and the sculptor Giannino Castiglioni carved the fourteen Stations of the Cross on the winding road that leads up to the shrine from the main square of the town. The remains of Italian soldiers who had fallen between :it:Monte Rombon and Tolmin were removed from the existing military cemeteries of the area, including Drežnica, Drežniške Ravne, Gabrje, Kamno, Smast, Bovec and Kobarid, and collected in the new shrine. Among the 7,014 remains are those of 1,748 unknown soldiers, collected in six tombs placed on the sides of the central stairways. The names of those who are known are set in serpentine marble panels. The memorialisation of Caporetto The memorialisation of Caporetto was problematic for Mussolini's government, as it was for Italy in general. The defeat was regarded as a stain on the national character, and an acceptable national interpretive framework was needed in order to account for it, preserving both the dignity of the commanders and the admirable qualities of the ordinary troops. Initially the simplest way of reconciling these requirements was often just to avoid the topic of Caporetto as much as possible. The 1934 film Gloria:Documentazione Cinematografica Della Guerra 1915-1918 by Roberto Omegna celebrated courage and national pride, but scarcely mentioned Caporetto at all. However a second narrative also developed, which regarded the defeat at Caporetto as a critical moment in the foundation of