VERONA – Major Project for the NATO Base West Star

The recovery of the former NATO base West Star in Affi (Verona) is an important step for the memory of the Cold War in Italy. The museum project, included in the conversion law of the Pnrr decree-law and promoted by the deputy of FdI Alessia Ambrosi, deserves appreciation because it returns public value to a structure that remained hidden for a long time. At the same time, as with Monte Soratte near Rome, the nature of the site requires reflection on its possible future role in a highly unstable international context.

A necessary museum

The allocation of 7 million euros for the reclamation and initial recovery of the former NATO base West Star allows the transformation of the bunker of Monte Moscal into a museum dedicated to the Cold War.

It is a positive initiative. West Star is not just any building, but a military structure carved into the rock, designed to withstand extreme scenarios and ensure operational continuity in case of crisis. Recovering it means saving a significant piece of Italian, European, and Atlantic history.

The museum will be able to tell new generations that post-war peace was not only the result of diplomacy but also of deterrence, alliances, planning, and defense capabilities. In this sense, memory is not sterile celebration: it is education to reality.

The FTASE NATO command

To understand the value of West Star, one must remember what the FTASE Command was, namely the Allied Land Forces Southern Europe Command, known in NATO as LANDSOUTH.

Based in Verona, the command was responsible for coordinating the land defense of the southern flank of the Atlantic Alliance, with particular attention to Northern Italy and the possible threat from the east during the Cold War. It was an integrated command structure, in which the Italian national dimension was inserted into the military system of NATO.

West Star was its protected command post. It was designed between 1958 and 1960 and built between 1960 and 1966, carved into the rock of Monte Moscal. The structure extended over about 13,000 square meters, with about 280 rooms, three internal levels, multiple entrances, and a connecting tunnel about one kilometer long. It was designed to accommodate, in case of crisis, about 500 people including military and civilian personnel.

The base was not a passive shelter. It had to ensure command, control, and communications even in extreme conditions, including scenarios of nuclear, chemical, or bacteriological attack. It was equipped with autonomous systems, ventilation systems, and protections for communication security, including shielding against electromagnetic pulses.

Its main function was to ensure what becomes essential in war: decision-making continuity, secure connections, and operational coordination. For this reason, West Star should be seen not only as an engineering work but as an expression of a precise defense culture.

A resource not to be considered only as the past

The museum recovery is right and should be supported. However, a structure like West Star should not be considered only a relic of the Cold War.

Recent crises in the Gulf, attacks with drones and missiles, the vulnerability of ports, energy networks, digital infrastructures, and decision-making centers show that territorial protection has become central again. Contemporary warfare does not only hit the front: it also targets the systems that allow a state to function.

For this reason, Italy should carefully evaluate whether West Star can maintain, alongside its museum function, a possible dual utility. It is not about militarizing the site or giving up its public opening. It is about not wasting a rare, protected, and strategically located structure.

West Star can become a Cold War museum, but also a reminder for the present. Italy needs a more mature defensive mentality, capable of combining historical memory, civil protection, national security, and technological preparedness. Peace is not defended with lethargy, but with awareness and foresight.