On Saturday 10th October, Bardi will hold a special commemoration ahead of Italy’s inaugural Giornata nazionale in memoria delle vittime dell’Arandora Star (National Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Arandora Star), which will be marked nationally the following day.
Organised by the Associazione Nazionale Arandora Star APS, in collaboration with the Comune di Bardi, the event will bring together the community and invited guests to remember the victims and mark the introduction of the new National Day.
11am: Teatro Maria Luigia
Bardi’s Mayor, Valentina Pontremoli, will open the commemoration, joined by invited guests and parliamentarians who were signatories to the law establishing the National Day. Representatives of the Associazione Nazionale Arandora Star APS will also speak.
12pm: Bardi Cemetery
The commemoration will then move to the Arandora Star Chapel, where a new commemorative plaque will be unveiled.
Bardi has a particularly strong connection to the tragedy. 48 men from the comune lost their lives aboard the Arandora Star, the greatest loss suffered by any Italian comune. Many had emigrated to Britain, including to communities in Wales, while their families and roots remained closely connected to Bardi and its surrounding villages.
The work to preserve their memory in Bardi stretches back decades. The Comitato pro vittime Arandora Star was established there in 1968, beginning a long-running effort to research the disaster and ensure its victims were not forgotten. That work continues today through the Associazione Nazionale Arandora Star APS.
