As it has since 2001, when 8 August was declared the “National Day Commemorating Italian Workers around the World”, at 8:10 on that same date this year too – the hour of the tragic event – the “Maria mater orphanorum” bell will toll 262 times for the opening of the ceremony for the commemoration of the 58th anniversary of the Marcinelle mine disaster. Present at the ceremony, in addition to Italian Ambassador to Belgium Alfredo Bastianelli and Consul General in Charleroi Iva Palmieri, will be Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs Mario Giro, who holds the remit for Italians abroad.
While visiting Belgium – where the under-secretary spent his childhood and early adolescence – Giro will place the traditional wreath of flowers at the monument to the memory of the tragedy both in the cemetery of Marcinelle and in the Bois du Cazier, today a museum to memory. Messages from President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano and Minister for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini will be read during the ceremony.
The tragedy of Marcinelle was the third largest disaster (in number of victims) in the history of emigrant Italian miners. It took the lives of 136 Italian nationals: 60 from Abruzzo, of which 23 from the same town, Manoppello, in the province of Pescara; others were from 13 of the 20 Italian regions: Calabria, Campania, Emilia Romagna, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Lombardy, Marche, Molise, Puglia, Sicily, Tuscany, Trentino Alto Adige and Veneto.
