Row over Mussolini-era name of Italian ski resort

It was a decision that was to last just 24 hours. 

A village located in Italy’s Val d’Aosta on Thursday reverted to its original name ‘Le Breuil’ – the name before it became Cervinia in 1934, named after the resort’s famous peak, Monte Cervino- also known as the Matterhorn.

Its modern name was given as part of a drive by Benito Mussolini to Italianize many northern place names, giving them Italian ones instead of French or German ones.

Many municipalities in Val d’Aosta became known under new Italian names, as did many municipalities in Alto Adige-South Tyrol on the Austrian border.

The process of changing the town’s name back began in 2011, and Valle d’Aosta’s regional president, Renzo Testolin, signed a decree last September which formalised the switch.

“Cervinia will not disappear in the collective memory,” explained Jean-Antoine Maquignaz, the former mayor who began the process for the recognition of historical names in the region. “It is one of the most famous ski resorts in the Alps,” he told the Turin edition of Corriere della Sera.

The move meant the roundabout sign welcoming people to the historic centre of  “Breuil-Cervinia” and road signs towards the slopes would have to be taken down.

The decision sparked an outcry from locals who expected it to bring a mountain of bureaucracy, and from Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s rightwing Brothers of Italy party who described it as “worthy of the Taliban”.

Tourism minister Daniela Santanchè urged the local council to “think again” saying that the local winter sports industry would be “heavily penalised by dropping a brand name that is known worldwide”.

After 24 hours, Maquignaz no longer wanted to change the name either. The former mayor said there was a “misunderstanding”. He did not think that the name ‘Cervinia’ would be cancelled: 

“We just wanted to reaffirm a historical toponym, which is the one we use in dialect”. 

Maquignaz explained that he only used “Cervinia” if he spoke Italian.

Even the mayor Elisa Cicco admitted that “no one wanted to cancel the name Cervinia”.

“It is our brand, our brand by which we are known throughout the world,” she said.

Cicco has now “restarted the process for redefining the toponym” with the president of the Aosta Region.