On the weekend of 23/24 April, 2005, more than four hundred re-enactors from all over Europe (not to mention five hundred spectators) witnessed a replay of the Battle of Caldiero, a small town near Verona. It was just like two hundred years earlier - the French in blue and the Italians in green faced off the Austrians dressed in white. The director of proceedings was the English 'captain', Martin Lancaster, and the event took place before the Fondation Napoléon adminstrator, the Prince d'Essling, Victor André Masséna.
On the Saturday morning, spectators came to look at the 250 re-enactors in the French Camp at Villa Zenobio-Trezza and 150 Austro-Hungarians in camp at Caldiero, via delle Terme di Giunone. Later in the afternoon French troops marched off to battle to the accompaniment of fife and drum, finally encountering the Austrians is Piazza Matteotti. Before the encounter, French troops sang the Marseillaise and then got down to the business of muskets and cannon. The wounded were operated upon in the field hospital. On the Sunday morning, a pitched battle was held between French and Austrian troops at the Terme di Giunone (here however, a huge downpour caused many of the onlooker to run for cover...). At 12-30pm troops did a file past in the presence of Prince Masséna, trustee of the Fondation Napoléon. And at the end of the day, the troops marched away singing military songs of the period.
As the Roberto Alberti, mayor of Caldiero, remarked, «These events of 200 years ago deeply marked this area, even leaving their marks on the place names (such as, for example "Le Battajole" and the "Campi dei morti") and also in the coat of arms of the commune: two swords on a red background».
Source: Zeno Martini, in L'Arena, il giornale di Verona, 25/4/2005
For pictures of the re-enactment on an entyusiast's web site click here
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