Andrea Bafile Memorial Cave (Bocca di Valle)

The Cave-shrine of Bocca di Valle is located in the eastern Maiella and is a military shrine in memory of the soldiers who died during the Great War. It is an important historic and memorial site, where their sacrifice can be reflected and honored.

It is a cave-shrine built to commemorate the Fallen of Abruzzo in the First World War.
The shrine is an octagonal-shaped artificial cave that recalls the mosaic of the floor, it preserves the remains of Lieutenant of Vascello Andrea Bafile, a sailor from L'Aquila who died on the Piave in 1918. Inside there is the marble sarcophagus, sculpted by Felice Giuliante. The walls are decorated with three large ceramic panels and floor tiles made by Basilio and Tommaso Cascella, representing the Pietà and the Sacrifice. Inscription: On the main facade is engraved the inscription dictated by Gabriele D'Annunzio: "Sons of Abruzzo / dead fighting for Italy / and buried far away / between the Alps and the sea / the Maiella / mother / looks at you and you blesses / forever "(XX sept. MCMXX.)

It was said of Him that he died smiling.

Andrea Bafile, born in Monticchio, a hamlet of L'Aquila, on 7 October 1878 and died on the Piave front in the night between 11 and 12 March 1918.

Below is why he was buried in Guardiagrele (CH).

He had to be buried in the monumental cemetery of Venice, Gabriele D'Annunzio pushed hard for this to happen, but two Abruzzo people prevailed over him who managed to bring the body back and buried it, in 1923, with an impressive ceremony at in which around 10 thousand people took part, in the shrine dug in Guardiagrele (Chieti), in the bowels of the Majella.
It was Raffarle Paolucci of Orsogna and the Honorable Cristini of Guardiagrele who ensured that instead of any unknown soldier it was Andrea Bafile himself who was buried in the shrine, considering him the example of courage and heroism belonging to three military corps: the Navy, Aviation and Infantry.
And it is not clear why no intercession was received from L'Aquila, his hometown.
Guardiagrele thus had the honor of hosting Bafile's body, in Bocca di Valle, in a cave which is a place full of suggestions, decorated with the delicate enamelled colors of the majolica by the Ortonese artist Basilio Cascella, three gigantic ceramic panels made up of 1400 tiles, a masterpiece of the art of the founder of the Cascella family.
The Guardiagrele cave was dug with the economic participation of all of Abruzzo and Molise, a sort of subscription by both regions, every single citizen paid their own donation to pay homage to the soldier Andrea Bafile.

When as a child I asked why a sailor was buried in the mountains, popular wisdom replied that he likes to admire the sea from the mother mountain, the Majella.

On 29 and 30 September 2023, at the Bocca di Valle shrine in Guardiagrele, the celebrations for the centenary of the transfer of the remains of Lieutenant Andrea Bafile, hero and gold medal for military valour, with the presence of the Undersecretary of State for Defense with delegation to the Navy, Matteo Perego of Cremnago, together with the commander of the Southern Maritime Command, Admiral. of Division Flavio Biaggi, representing the Navy General Staff, who will join the other civil and military authorities present for the commemoration of the Hero.