Berlin billed for Roman ships burnt by Nazis

A TOWN in Italy is demanding compensation from Germany for the destruction of two giant Roman ships by Nazi forces.

The two huge barges were built for the emperor Caligula and floated on Lake Nemi, in the Alban Hills east of Rome. One was a pleasure palace, hosting banquets and orgies, while the other is thought to have been a floating temple dedicated to the goddess Diana.

The ships sank during the Roman era but were dredged up between 1928 and 1932 in an operation enthusiastically backed by Benito Mussolini, who cast himself as a new emperor.

They were the centrepiece of a museum on the shores of the lake until 1944 when the ships went up in smoke. It is widely believed they were set ablaze out of spite by Nazi forces retreating from the Allies, who had landed at Salerno and Anzio.

Alberto Bertucci, the mayor of Nemi, which overlooks the lake, is asking for compensation from Berlin for what he says was a blatant act of cultural desecration.

“The Nazis ordered all the locals and the custodian of the museum to leave the area and then set alight these treasures. There is no doubt of that.”

Renowned as one of Rome’s most eccentric, if not psychopathic, emperors, Caligula ordered the building of the huge barges so that he could take pleasure cruises on Lake Nemi, which is fringed by volcanic hills

“They were palatial boats, opulent vessels that were full of marvels, equipped with hot water, thermal baths, mosaics, columns and places to worship Diana, to whom Caligula was devoted,” the mayor told Corriere della Sera newspaper.

The town wants to use the money to construct life-size, resin replicas of the ships, which were decorated with elaborate mosaics and bronze fittings cast in the shape of wolf and panther heads.

Mr Bertucci has engaged the services of a German lawyer based in Florence who has worked on similar wartime compensation cases.