The Red Cross Memorial was erected in 1959, the year of the centenary of the Battle of Solferino, in memory of the Nobel Peace Prize winner Jean Henry Dunant, who drew the idea of founding the International Red Cross from that juncture.
Through a long avenue of cypresses, called San Luigi Gonzaga, you arrive at the memorial.
At the bottom, raised above a block of stone, the concrete sculpture with a central cross in iron and enamel.
On the right side, the monument consists of a wall with polychrome marble tiles from all over the world, on which the names of 148 countries belonging to the International Red Cross are imprinted.
The battle that was fought on the morainic hills was catastrophic like few others at that time.
At the end of more than 15 hours of fighting, more than 6000 dead and about 40,000 wounded more or less seriously, including Franco-Piedmontese and Austrians, remained on the battlefield.
The main problem was the rescue of wounded soldiers during the night, many remained on the battlefield.
The result was that throughout the night, the excruciating moans and desperate screams of those who were suffering or about to die followed one another.
It was this scenario that deeply affected a young Swiss businessman, Jean Henry Dunant.
Dunant set out to find men and women to help him provide the wounded with water, food, and bandages.
He managed to open the churches to house them, he personally went to the battlefields to collect other wounded.
Thus was born the project of forming teams of volunteer nurses who could help the wounded on the battlefields, according to a criterion of absolute impartiality.
