“Nemi demands compensation Merkel” – with such headlines out of the Italian media, commenting on the initiative of the mayor 1900-thousandth of the city at the foot of the crater of an extinct volcano near Rome Alberto Bertucci. As writes the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, “with the help of a marketing move,” he decided to improve the poor financial position of Nemi, which suffered greatly from the effects of corona. Not only that, hotels are half-empty, and the traditional strawberry festival this summer had to be cancelled. Then the mayor remembered that in the days of Il Duce, the community owned two ancient ships that was destroyed by fire in 1944. Now he wants to restore them with the help of 3D printing and the German money.
the amount of the claim to the German government not publicly announced. Instead, Mr. Bertucci has appealed to Florence in the office of the German lawyer Joachim Lau, who previously led the business relatives of the Italian victims of the massacre of the SS – and successfully achieved compensation for them. In Berlin the requirements of the Italians not yet commented. In fact, historians are still not really clear what actually happened with the legendary ships of the Roman Emperor Caligula – whether they were actually set on fire by the Nazis, whether they were burned during the American bombing. But the mayor following the meeting of the municipal Council has issued a clear verdict: for the fire at the Museum of the Roman ships, with pump open on the shore of a local lake in April 1940, with the participation of Mussolini, Hitler’s troops responsible. Namely, the soldiers of the 163rd heavy anti-aircraft units of the Wehrmacht, who set fire to hangars during the retreat on the night of June 1, 1944, under fire of the allies. “We have found records, extensive documents and testimony. The Nazis expelled all the residents and the Manager of the Museum. They decided to burn these treasures. No doubt,” said Mr. Bertucci.
the Story of the missing ships full of secrets. It is believed that they were built by order of Emperor Gaius Germanicus Aug, widely known by the nickname Caligula (“little Boot”). He ascended to the Roman throne in 37 BC and actively patronized the cult of the goddess Diana, which has long flourished in the surroundings of Nemi. The larger of the vessels, 73 meters in length and 24 in width, probably housed the temple of Diana. The second ship, 71 on 20 meters, Caligula used as a floating Palace. However, during their pleasure trips he couldn’t swim far because of the small size of the lake. Most likely, the ships were sunk shortly after the murder of the Emperor-tyrant. In the Middle ages there are numerous reports in the network of local fishermen came across bronze objects, fragments of mosaics and marble statues. In the middle of the 15th century, cardinal Prospero Colonna commissioned the famous architect and theorist for the artsand Renaissance Leon Battista Alberti to explore the lake, but to no avail. The secret of his DNA managed to open only under a fascist dictator who in 1927 gave the order to start the search for underwater treasure. For the sake of it even restored the underwater channel with a length of over a mile, which was passed in pre-Roman times through the Western side of the crater of the volcano for irrigation. And in 1932, the sludge actually found the remains of two majestic wooden ships. However, their second life was short-lived.
