The Military Cemetery in Milovice

Milovice, February 1, 2023

The emergence of the military cemetery itself is closely related to the beginning of World War I. During the First World War in October 1914, a prison camp was built upon a hill between Venice’s Vrutice and Milovice, housing Russian, Serbian and Italian war prisoners. The camp itself was made up of three parts: A stone camp that had been built before in 1904, as well as parts II. and III., which formed rows of wooden barracks slashed with black cardboard. The individual barracks were up to 45 metres long and 10 metres wide. There were 220-300 prisoners in each house. The camp housed 30,000 prisoners, up to 45,000 after the war offensive. With the increasing number of prisoners and the presence of infectious diseases more than common in similar facilities, it was appropriate to address what to do with the remains of the deceased prisoners.

After the cemetery was founded, the bodies of the deceased were laid to rest one at a time, but with the increasing number of daily deaths, they were taken to being buried in mass shafts. The cemetery can be called both multi-national and multi-religious. The remains of Italian, Russian (Latvians, Estonians, Lithuanians, Poles, one Fin and other nationalities are buried among Russian prisoners), Serbian, Austrian, Czech and soldiers of other nationalities, as well as the members of Roman-Catholic, Orthodox, Jewish and Muslim religion. The final number of burials stopped just above the 6,000-body limit, of which, according to available data, 5,276 were of Italian nationality – from here also came the graveyard designation as Italian – Cimitero Militare Italiano (5,276 Italians, 527 Russians and 60 Serbs are buried in the cemetery. The cemetery also served as a burial ground for its own and allied soldiers, with 323 Austrian-Hungarian citizens, 224 of them Czechs, 49 Hungarians, 40 Poles, 6 Romanians, 4 Austrians and 2 Czech nurses.)

Paintings as they hang in the museum Military Cemetery in Milovice

My name is Eliška Kroutilová, I’m 15 years old and I am a student of ZŠ Juventa. I was asked if I could paint a picture with a military theme. Since painting is very close to me and I enjoy it, I agreed. I had never encountered a military theme in a painting before. That’s why I decided to adapt myself and my style to the picture. I like to paint landscapes, especially the sky and clouds. I enjoyed it all the more when I could do what I like. Next, it was necessary to draw a soldier standing in a victorious position with a flag in his hand. That was the most difficult part of the painting, especially the soldier’s face. It was a great  and new experience and it is my pleasure that I had the opportunity to paint this picture…

Eliška Kroutilová, ZŠ Juventa, Milovice

Our names are Šarlota Michalcová and Denisa Helíková, we study at ZŠ Juventa in Milovice. We are the ones who painted one of the paintings and we really enjoyed doing it. It was a pleasure to work on a painting depicting an Italian soldier.

It took us almost a week to create it. We put a lot of effort and time into it. We wanted to make it as stunning as your history. It was worth it.

We drew the sketch with a pencil and made the final work with acrylic paints. We also worked with different equipment than we are used to, for example using sponges etc. In doing so, we gained a lot of new skills and experiences.

In short, we enjoyed creating the painting, as amateurs. It was a honor for us. We hope you like the painting and that our work is appreciated.

Denisa Helíková and Šarlota Michalcová, ZŠ Juventa, Milovice