When matter holds memories, when landscapes offer the promise of peace. Montesole more than half a century after the massacre.

In the autumn of 1944, along the slopes of Monte Sole in the Municipality of Bologna, a series of mass murders,- known as the “Marzabotto massacre”- were carried out by the nazi-fascist troops. Only in 1989, after a long period of painful oblivion, the homonymous regional historical park was established. The present contribution, recalling the events that mark these places, intends to examine the strategies put in place for the safeguarding of this site with particular reference to the area of the so called “Memorial” as well as reflecting on crucial and complex relationships between the conservation and the enhancement of one of richest landscape contexts in biodiversity in the Emilia Romagna Region and what is left of poor farmhouses, small aggregates of buildings and places of worship, called to witness bereavements that are not to be forgotten.