Italy: Vote for “Places of the Heart” public heritage awards — including for Jewish heritage sites such as the long-neglected Jewish cemetery in Revere

The long-neglected Jewish cemetery in Revere, a small town in northern Italy’s  Mantova province, is up for a public heritage award that you can vote for online. Established in 1809, it includes just 23 headstones behind a red brick wall – and is the only witness to a local Jewish community that had all but vanished a century ago.  

The cemetery is one of more than a score of Jewish heritage sites – among thousands of other places all over Italy – that are in the running for the “Places of the Heart” award organized by the  Fondo Ambiente Italiano (FAI), the Italian National Trust, in collaboration with the Intesa Sanpaolo bank. FAI is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and promoting Italy’s cultural heritage that was founded in 1975.

The competition is a biannual initiative that invites the public to vote for cultural heritage sites across Italy, giving them a chance to receive restoration funding. The top three sites will be awarded €70,000, €60,000, and €50,000, respectively.

Places that receive 2,500 votes will be able to apply for grants for restoration. Votes must be in by April 10, 2025. 

It’s an uphill battle, as more than 25,000 sites are on the list!

But to date, thanks to the involvement of JHE contributor Michele Migliori, the Jewish cemetery in Revere is the most voted of the Jewish heritage sites in the competition, with some 405 votes by January 10, putting it in 242nd place overall.

None of the other Jewish sites, which include more than a dozen synagogues and more than a dozen Jewish cemeteries, as well as old Jewish quarters, had reached 100 votes.

People are empowered to nominate sites for the Places of the Heart competition, and in December Michele launched the initiative for the Revere cemetery, inspired by a post he wrote about it two years ago for JHE and in collaboration with David Palterer, an architect who leads projects related to Jewish heritage sites in the Mantova area.   Their initiative has received support from local officials.

Revere, a town today of 2,500, was home to a Jewish community that never exceeded 100 members. Many were involved in the silk industry. The cemetery’s oldest surviving matzevah dates from 1831, and the newest from 1906. The Jewish community had almost completely vanished by the 1920s, and the last Jewish family was murdered during the Holocaust.

The cemetery is owned by the Mantova Jewish community, the closest active Jewish community. In the mid-1970s, under an agreement with  the Mantova community,  the cemetery was absorbed intact into the newly enlarged industrial premises of a glass factory.  The factory closed in the 1990s and remained abandoned. After it was demolished in 2020, the cemetery “reappeared” after being hidden and virtually inaccessible for almost 50 years.

Want to add your vote?

Click here to vote for the cemetery of Revere (The website is only available in Italian. To vote, click on the orange tab labeled “Vota con 1 Click,” enter your email, name, and surname, and then click “Invia.” You will receive an email to confirm your vote; simply click on the “Conferma” button to finalize it): 

You can only vote one time for a site, but you can also browse the list and vote for other places.

Click here to read Michele’s 2022 post  

Click here to visit the Facebook page dedicated to saving the Revere Jewish cemetery