Bolzano, the capital city of the province of South Tyrol in northern Italy, has become an important case study over its demonstrated ability to thoughtfully frame several of its local fascist monuments in a contemporary light that presents the public with a challenge to improve its own attitudes and look at societal wrongs related to the subject matter of each. 

Much of the border community’s original Tyrolean culture was wiped out during the reign of dictator Benito Mussolini, who installed and erected a host of fascist buildings and monuments as part of the establishment of a new ethnic enclave there before the war. The Victory Monument thus became especially potent talismans of Italian identity when set against the prevailing culture of the predominantly German-speaking region, and so they remained untouched until the local administration began its campaign or “recontextualizing” in the last decade following years of dispute and violent episodes which have now gone the way of Il Duce. 

"This was an opportunity for the city to have an honest conversation about its history," history professor Hannes Obermair told the BBC. "The disputes are less about the past than about the present. So what kind of society are we now? Are we a society riven by past ideologies or are we a democratic and pluralistic society that believes in the values of participation, tolerance and respect for humanity?"