Well I learned something new today I have been listening to the IWM interview with John Gowan of 56 Recce, in it he is talking about Montecassino Monastery: "You’ve seen pictures? (of the Monastery). Well you know it stands up, and that is how it is. The part that overlooked Cassino itself goes up, they have a funicular railway that goes up it, that’s how steep it is you see." I was a bit puzzled to hear about this, as I hadn't heard of it before. With a bit of googling it is obvious he was talking about 1944, not anything he had heard about it just before the interview. I have found a transcription of the notes of a presentation given by Major Ernest John Bowmer, R.A.M.C., on 28th February 1945: "We may pause here for a moment to consider the historic importance of the Abbey of Monte Cassino. It has rightly been called the Cradle of Western Medicine. Before the bombing the Monastery itself was a large mass of buildings containing great cathedral church and a series of beautiful cloistered courts of various dates. The whole building was connected to the little town of Cassino by a funicular railway, crossing a gorge which would take the whole of a tiring day to cover on foot." http://www.vancouver-mmm.ca/monte_cassino.htm I have been trying unsuccessfully to find any old pictures of this funicular railway, or ski lift as it is sometimes called in some of the articles I have looked at. Any members care to offer pictures or other information about it? Lesley
Lesley, Do you think they're referring to the cable car?..nice picture of that in "Then and Now". edit - no doubt they are. best
Lesley, It's in the book..page 27.. The photo references acknowledge "Mauro Lottici". Hangman's Hill was so named, being the end of the cable car route (edit: see Frank's clarification below). best
Lesley Apparently it was built in the late 1920's and started operation in 1930: Some Roman headstones, undamaged during the bombardments, were placed along the staircase to the ancient doorway in 1929. The staircase was later adorned with other pieces found after the war. During this year, the cable-car appeared which connected the Monastery to the city. It was later inaugurated in 1930. Also during 1929 a drinkable water system was realized which replaced the rainwater tanks of the Monastery. From - http://abbaziamontecassino.org/abbey/index.php/en/legacy/modern-era-montecassino-abbey/42-legacy/modern-era/162-the-years-leading-to-wwii TD
Richard. Hangman's Hill was not quite the end of the cable car at the top. The pylon on Hangman's Hill was part of the route and, although almost at the top, the cable car travelled underneath the pylon and on up to the front of the Monastery - roughly where the car park and the public loos are now. The cable car started just outside the railway station. The cable service was not resumed after the war because, in restoring the monastery to its former beauty, a proper tarmac road was built from the bottom to the top. Before 1944, the road up was just flagstones. Regards Frank
To add to this, the cable was apparently bought down by a 'hot-dogging' German pilot in late '43. He didn't survive the clash. Frank has described its path well so we can see that Bowmer's recollection was slightly exaggerated. Also to be clear it was never a ski-lift though of course of the same design. As another piece of pedantry, it was not a funicular: A funicular, also known as an inclined plane or cliff railway, is a cable railway in which a cable attached to a pair of tram-like vehicles on rails moves them up and down a steep slope; the ascending and descending vehicles counterbalance each other. You may be interested to know that Cassino has been debating rebuilding the cable-car since the war. The unfortunate fact for them is that of the millions of tourists who visit the monastery only a handful spend any time (or money) in Cassino. There was a radical suggestion that the road up be closed to tour buses and passengers forced to use local traffic up - buses, taxis and/or, yes, a cable-car. This seems rather extreme but it wouldn't surprise me if instead a toll was applied to all traffic up the hill in the future.
Cassino's problem is that it has grown to be very dependent on the local Fiat car factory rather on tourism - indeed it has done almost nothing to milk that particular cash cow. The future of the massive car factory is constantly in doubt and this causes all sorts of tensions in the town. FdeP
Lesley From ‘Monte Cassino – Ten Armies in Hell” Page 157: “In peacetime a funicular cable car had run from the town to a pylon just outside the abbey; its cable had been accidentally severed before the fighting by a German aircraft and now the upper pylon, in the grim humour of the troops in the valley, seemed to beckon like an executioner’s gibbet – hence Hangman’s Hill”. Also if you look at WW2 maps I think it is marked.
cable car in Italian is Funivia more pics here. (there are quite a few out there) http://www.cassino2000.com/cdsc/studi/archivio/n26/n26p23.html http://www.cassino2000.com/funivia/foto-03.html http://www.funivie.org/funigallery/displayimage.php?pid=6584 http://digilander.libero.it/historia_militaria/lavecchiacassino1.htm http://digilander.libero.it/sessantennale/Ipertesto%20cassino/foto/funivia.JPG http://www.cassino2000.com/funivia/immagini/funiv-02.jpg http://digilander.libero.it/historia_militaria/thennow_cassino13_8.jpg
Well done Owen, thought you'd come up with something Thanks to everyone for adding information to the thread. Lesley