Abstract

The Fosse Ardeatine memorial serves as a contested and ever-evolving site that shapes collective memory and represents historical trauma in Italian dark tourism. According to a post-Cold War shift from celebrating antifascist resistance to emphasising Holocaust remembrance, which recasts the massacre as a marginal event in national discourse. A recent report stated that the memorial provokes powerful, immersive experiences; Blight even terms the site an “open wound” subject to continual reinterpretation. The work “Las Fronteras de la Memoria” and “Memory and Identity. A reflection from “post-fascist” Italy show that the memorial mediates national identity by interweaving historical fact, personal memory and even imagined recollections, all elements that contribute to its diverse and often competing narratives.
The author critically examines the Fosse Ardeatine in Rome, the site of a 1944 Nazi massacre of 335 civilians, as a poignant case study within the discourse of dark tourism, heritage interpretation and ethical remembrance. Drawing on theoretical frameworks from dark tourism scholarship, heritage studies and memory politics, it interrogates the multifaceted motivations of visitors, ranging from commemorative pilgrimage to educational inquiry and existential reflection. It further explores the commercial and institutional contexts shaping the site, revealing tensions between market forces, political instrumentalisation and curatorial integrity. The analysis highlights the role of various stakeholders, including government bodies, heritage institutions and civil society, in shaping the memoryscape of the site and evaluates the impact of hospitality actors in ethically mediating visitor experiences. The chapter underscores the Fosse Ardeatine as a site of dissonant heritage, characterised by conflicting narratives of resistance, martyrdom and national identity. It argues for a deeper ethical engagement with dark tourism, advocating for inclusive interpretation, responsible commercial practice and the preservation of polyphonic memory. The chapter is reflexively grounded in the author’s own Roman heritage, and it contributes to ongoing debates on how societies commemorate trauma, confront historical injustice and construct moral geographies through tourism and hospitality infrastructures. The Fosse Ardeatine, it concludes, remains a vital space for critical remembrance in the shadow of fascist violence, whose future depends on a collective commitment to ethical stewardship and interpretive depth.