Gedenkstatte Heldenberg

The Gedenkstatte Heldenberg (literally translated as Hero Mountain) is the resting place of the infamous Austrian Field Marshall Joseph Radetzky von Radetz, hero of 17 campaigns and butcher of Milan. Radetzky bequeathed his remains to Joseph Gottfried Pargfrieder who decades earlier had settled his debts. An illegitimate son of the Austrian Emperor Joseph II, who had made his fortune by supplying the Austrian army, Pargfrieder created this vast monument in a fit of patriotism in 1858. Radetzky lies under a monumental obelisk. Along with this grave, are two monuments. One to the Italian campaign of 1848 and the other to the Hungarian campaign of 1849. Each monument has a column surrounded by the busts of the eminent fallen dead. Two of the busts in the Italian are of particular interest. Standing side by side, you could easily walk past, two more dead soldiers, who died protecting a decaying state in its last throws of greatness under chancellor Metternich, the man who made Europe after the defeat of Napoleon. Under these two busts inscribed into the stone are the names, Antonio Count of Cannizaro and Mattias von Augarten. How these two new each other is unknown, all we know is that both died in the battle of Turin, as the King of Piedmont battled to drive out the Austrans of Italy. Excitingly this tells us there is a historical connection between the two parks that bare their names, how important this connection is remains to be seen