​These locations reconstruct the various aspects of Lucca's Resistance. The sites describe German violence and Allied bombing and the trail passes through the places of fascist power and partisan counter-power. The tour also reconstructs the birth and development of the Resistance, with reference to its political and military articulation, but also to the specific role of religion, women and intellectuals. ​​Particular attention is paid to the dynamics of the Liberation at the beginning of September. <div data-youtube-video=""><iframe class="video" allowfullscreen="false" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sLipO_U3wRA" start="0" width="640" height="480"></iframe></div>Lucca is also a beautiful city with a rich artistic and cultural heritage, dating back to the Roman times. You will admire its intact Renaissance-era city walls, its Piazza dell'Anfiteatro, which was once a Roman amphitheatre, and its Guinigi Tower, a 45-metre-tall tower that dates from the 1300s. This tour will give you a unique perspective on the history and beauty of Lucca and its surroundings.

Italy

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Carcere di San Giorgio

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City of Lucca

​​War and Resistance in Lucca​ 

On 4 August 1944, at 10 p.m., on the ramparts of the Walls of Lucca at Porta Elisa, the young priest Don Aldo Mei is shot by a platoon of the Wehrmacht and buried in the grave he was forced to dig himself. The next day, having obtained permission from the German Command, at about 10.00 a.m. the exhumed body was moved to the Barbantini sisters in Lucca in Via Elisa. Don Aldo Mei is rounded up by the Germans on 2 August and taken to the Pia Casa di Beneficienza in Lucca. Here, after a summary trial, he was sentenced to death. The efforts of the archbishop of Lucca, Monsignor Torrini, to snatch the young priest from the German rage were to no avail. On 30 July 1977, the Ministry of Defence and the President of the Republic awarded Don Aldo Mei the silver medal for military valour (in memoriam).

Memorial of Don Aldo Mei

With features and fittings typical of the period, the building became Palazzo Littorio in 1929 and was inaugurated in the presence of the National Secretary of the Fascist Party, Augusto Turati.&nbsp; Today it houses the offices of the Justice of the Peace.On 12 May 1930, Mussolini visited Lucca. After a short speech from the balcony of the Palazzo Ducale in Piazza Napoleone, the Duce left the Palazzo del Governo by car to reach the Palazzo del Littorio and watch the medieval parade and the display of the great war machines.

Former Littorio Palace

Home of the writer Guglielmo Petroni, author of the book 'Il mondo è una prigione' (The World is a Prison), which recounts the thirty-three days he spent in captivity in Rome in the hands of Nazi-Fascist torturers between 3 May and 4 JuneIn Via del Panificio, a few steps from Sant'Agostino, the torture convent, lived Guglielmo Petroni, poet, writer. In 1938 the writer Curzio Malaparte invited him to Rome to direct the magazine 'Prospettive'. Having come into contact with anti-fascist circles, Petroni took part in the Roman Resistance. Arrested in the spring of 1944, handed over to the SS and confined in Via Tasso prison, he was tortured and sentenced to death. Transferred to the prison Regina Coeli with the arrival of the Allies in Rome, he is saved from the death sentence and can return to Lucca. Once free again, he faces the arduous journey to his hometown in the grip of a sort of existential bewilderment and disorientation.&nbsp; After this experience, between 1944 and 1945, Petroni wrote 'Il mondo è una prigione' (The World is a Prison), a book that, like few others, elaborates on the tragic experience of imprisonment. A travel narrative through war-torn Italy that becomes a profound reflection on life and the human condition, when in the absence of understanding of others and reciprocal closeness, not only prison, but the whole world turns out to be a prison. Counted among the masterpieces of resistance literature, 'The World is a Prison' is in fact an absolute classic.

Guglielmo Petroni House

&nbsp;In 1919, Benito Mussolini founded the "Fasci di Combattimento", a political entity that also experienced rapid growth in Tuscany in terms of membership.The province of Lucca, which only a couple of weeks earlier had suffered the effects of the devastating earthquake that had its epicentre in the Garfagnana region, in September 1920 set about founding a local section of the Fascists.On 14 December 1920, the 'baptism of squadrism' took place in Lucca, in the central Piazza S. Michele, where about 500 people had gathered for a socialist rally against the increase in prices. The Lucca fascists, among whom the future head of local fascism, Carlo Scorza, made an appearance, attacked the MP Lorenzo Ventavoli of Monsummano Terme and the citizens present at the protest rally. The Lucca fascist squads were joined by over 300 comrades from Pisa and Siena who had come to the city. To restore order, the Guardia Regia fired on the crowd while the black shirts returned undisturbed to their headquarters in Via S. Andrea. Nineteen wounded and two dead remained on the ground, Valente Vellutini, the owner of a spinning mill, and former Liberal town councillor Angelo Della Bidia.The following day, cubic inscriptions appeared next to the church of San Michele with the peremptory and threatening statement: 'The fascists rule in Lucca'.

Piazza San Michele and the clashes in December 1920

The contribution of women to the Resistance was fundamental, despite being underestimated for a long time.On 8 September, they carried out an important operation to save straggling soldiers, along with the other groups of persecuted people. Following this, they then became directly involved in partisan activity: often as relay girls, but in some cases also as fighting partisans. The choice to join the Resistance Movement was even more significant for women, because it was not induced by conscription notices. However, even at the end of the war, their role in the Liberation parades and in the recognition commissions was still underestimated.In recent years, however, both historiography and public memory have recovered and enhanced it. This is also demonstrated by the plaque which was placed in 2014 in Via del Loreto, near the town hall and the ANPI headquarters.Among the women protagonists of the Lucca Resistance were Maria Lazzareschi, GDD leader; Nara Marchetti, partisan fighter and later UDI and ANPI leader; and Maria Eletta Martini, relay girl and later a main figure of Catholic associationism.

Plaque to Women in the Resistance

Vasco Braschi (1908-1944) and Luciano Tonelli (1913-1944) were two communist partisans from Lucca. They were killed on 5 September 1944, the day of the Liberation of Lucca, victims of the ammunition fire with which the Germans protected their retreat towards the safer positions on the Gothic Line. Nine other partisans died along with them.Braschi, on duty at an air-raid shelter, was wounded by a grenade and later died on 13 September in hospital. Tonelli was shot in a fight of ammunition fire with the Germans near the Foro Boario and died on 6 September.A plaque on the wall of the castle of Porta Santa Maria (Porta Giannotti for the people of Lucca) is dedicated to Braschi and Tonelli. It is a very humble and bare sign, and is characterised by displaying the communist symbol of the hammer and sickle: it is the only one of its kind in the entire Lucca area.The PCI section in Lucca centre was named after Tonelli until the 1980s.

Porta Santa Maria Memorial plaque

On 6 January 1944, Epiphany Day, at 1.07pm, 22 B-26 Maruders, belonging to the 319th Bomber Group which took off from Sardinia, dropped 124 500-pound bombs on the Lucca district of San Concordio, from altitudes between 9000 and 9900 feet.&nbsp;The targets were the railway station, the Italgas company, and the Lenzi mechanical workshops, engaged in war production. However, civil and industrial buildings were also hit. The toll was 25 casualties buried under the rubble, including four minors, as well as several injured people some of whom died in hospital in the following days.&nbsp;On the same mission, Viareggio and Pontedera were also hit. The episode marked the beginning of a very difficult period for the population, who had to face the fiercest period of the war.Seventy years after the tragedy, in 2014, the town council had a plaque installed on the station entrance to commemorate the pain suffered that day by the entire Lucca community. Original research by Michele Citarella was also promoted.&nbsp;

Railway Station

Shortly after 10am on 5 September 1944, the first Allied soldiers entered Lucca, passing through Porta San Pietro. It was a group of African-American soldiers from the 370th Combat Team of the 92nd Buffalo Infantry Division, under the command of Captain C.F. Gandy. Only readmitted to the army in 1941, African-American soldiers were segregated into separate units, such as the Buffalos, which consisted of 15,000 men mostly from the southern states. They disembarked in Naples in 1944, then arrived by sea in Civitavecchia and arrived in Tuscany on military convoys. They had the task of crossing the Arno and breaking through the Gothic LineThey fought heroically in Versilia and Garfagnana. Lucca, liberated by partisans the night before, welcomed the troops with celebration. The CLN held its first free assembly, in the presence of Renato Bitossi and Giuseppe De Gennaro for the PCI (Italian Communist Party), Aldo Muston for the PDA (Action Party), Ferdinando Martini for the DC (Christian Democracy), Frediano Francesconi and Giulio Mandoli for the PRI (Italian Republican Party), and Enea Melosi for the PLI (Italian Liberal Party). On this occasion, socialist Gino Baldassari was appointed Mayor of Lucca. After Lucca, the Buffalos also contributed to the liberation of La Spezia and Genoa. In total they suffered over 12,000 killed and 3,500 wounded. They returned home in November 1945 and the division was immediately disbanded. For a long time they were discriminated against and even forgotten. Only in the 1980s did they come to be valued as they should, thanks to pop culture: Bob Marley's Buffalo Soldiers and then Spike Lee's Miracle at St. Anna made their exploits known, as did Fred Kowomu's docu-film, Buffalo Inside. On 13 January 1997, President Bill Clinton honoured Lieutenant John Fox (who died in Sommocolonia) and Petty Officer Vernon Baker (the protagonist of the Battle of Castello Aghinolfi) with America's highest military award: the 'Medal of Honour'.Many Buffalo veterans returned to Lucca in the post-war period: Among them Ivan John Houston, sergeant of the 92nd, author of the book Black Warriors and the film of the same name. He took part in the Liberation commemoration ceremonies in 2013 and 2019, and sadly passed away in 2020.

Porta San Pietro

Institutions for orphaned and abandoned children have existed in Lucca since the 16th century. Among the most famous of them was the Quarquonia. In 1822 the Deposito di Mendicità per gli orfani e i vagabondi [Begging Home for orphans and vagrants] was founded, from which the Pious Charity Home was born in 1851.In 1895, the institution moved to its final headquarters in Via Santa Chiara, in the former Monastero dell'Angelo, built in 1830 for the Passionists and designed by Lorenzo Nottolini. The new facility, which covered more than 10,000 square metres and was equipped with drinking water and gas lighting, included the orphanage, as well as a hospice for the disabled and a beggar's hospice, reaching a total capacity of 350 guests.In 1944, the institution was transferred to Bagni di Lucca while the building was requisitioned by the Germans, who made it a camp for all the forced labourers rounded up in the Tuscan coastal area.The first group was the 400 Livornese people arrested by the SS between Suvereto, Castagneto Carducci and San Vincenzo. They travelled 150km on foot, reaching Lucca on 23 June, and were than sent to the Gothic Line or to Germany. In the following weeks, over 3,000 transits per day were reached. The damage to the railway and the shortage of vehicles slowed down marshalling operations. The conditions were terrible: rotten straw beds, a scarcity of food and water, a cold and damp environment, in addition to physical and emotional harassment.The population was unable to provide any support to the inmates. Exceptions to this were the Oblati del Volto Santo [Oblates of the Holy Face] and four Red Cross women who were in charge of health care and mail sorting.On 2 August, Father Aldo Mei was also brought here, and was later killed on the evening of 4 August outside the walls. The last internees were those rounded up between 20 and 31 August. At dawn on 1 September, the Germans retreated, without following through on their threat to blow up the building. In total, more than 70,000 people passed through the Pia Casa. In the post-war period, the opera assistenziale took over the buildings, although heavily damaged, and continued its activities until 1985.Today the spaces are occupied by IPSIA (Instituto Pace Sviluppo Innovazione Acli) and a nursing home. In front of the building, a stumbling block was placed on 8 January 2020 (see image) as a reminder of the suffering endured by the inmates.

Pia Casa di Beneficenza

Since its creation, the Ducal Palace was the location of the political representation of the town. The Augusta Fortress of Castruccio Castracani was built here in the 14th century; the Citadel in the 15th century; and then the Public Palace.After the explosion in the armoury in 1586, the complex was redesigned by Bartolomeo Ammannati and then by Filippo Juvara. Under the Principality new works were carried out by Lorenzo Nottolini. After the unification of Italy it was stripped of its vestments and equipped with courtrooms.During the fascist regime it hosted various fascist demonstrations; in particular in September 1930 when Mussolini gave his official speech there in front of the crowd gathered in the square.In 1944, it was the seat of the prefecture of the Salò government. During the hectic hours leading up to the arrival of the Allies, on the evening of 4 September 1944, one of the two courtyards of the palace, the so-called 'Swiss' courtyard, was the gathering place for the partisans ahead of the uprising. The announcement of the Liberation was then made from the balcony on Piazza Napoleone. In the following days, meetings of the no longer clandestine CIn were held here.Since 1989 it has housed the Museo del Risorgimento (Museum of Unification of Italy), which was founded in 1925.

Ducal Palace

The Church of St Augustine was built in the 14th century on the pre-existing Church of San Salvatore in Muro, near the remains of the city walls and the Roman Theatre. In the 19th century it was deconsecrated and used as a military warehouse. It was returned to worship in 1866 thanks to the work of the Oblate Sisters of the Holy Spirit. It houses the venerated Madonna del Sasso and the body of Blessed Elena Guerra.The adjoining 15th-century convent has a portico with slightly ogival arches supported by octagonal brick columns.In December 1943, it became the headquarters of the provincial headquarters of the 86th Legion of the Republican National Guard, headed by Bruno Messori, and its Political Investigation Office. Among the torturers Camillo Cerboneschi stood out, who was known in the post-war period as 'the beast of the province'. Born in Perugia in 1908, but Milanese by adoption, a veteran of the Montenegrin front, he had been caught on 8 September 1943 in Lucca during a brief convalescence leave. Unable to return to his unit, he made himself available to the local Germanic command, managing to gather around him a small nucleus of ex-squadristas [member of Italian fascist squads] and veterans from the front. This group established the UPI, which was active in the search for ex-prisoners and straggling soldiers and then in anti-partisan repression.After being identified and apprehended, all those suspected of anti-fascist actions were taken to St. Augustine. They were interrogated, tortured and intimidated, and threatened with retaliation against their families. The torture consisted of forced ingestion of liquids, burns inflicted with a stove, and compression of the private parts. He is remembered by victims such as Captain Fiilippo Rubolotta, lawyer Guido Di Grazia and Professor Aldo Muston, among others.Through these fierce methods and the investigations conducted via a large network of local informers, the UPI achieved important operational successes, including the capture of Vittorio Monti and Domenico Randazzo, accused of being part of the Resistance movement and shot in Massarosa on 19 April 1944, and the mortal wounding of the partisan Roberto Bartolozzi, who died the following 29 June.With the approach of the Allies, Cerboneschi and his men moved to Emilia where the group disbanded. In 1948, they were tried by the CAS, but only the militant Erminio Barsotti was convicted (and granted amnesty), while Cerboneschi escaped from prison and Messori expatriated to Spain. In 1975, a plaque was placed to remember their criminal actions.

Convent of St Augustine

The Church of St. Anne, just outside the western walls of Lucca, is a very ancient settlement, dating back to the 7th century. The first record of a church dates back to 1331, but it was destroyed by a flood of the Serchio river in 1447. Later rebuilt, it was enlarged in the 17th century and later acquired considerable importance with the opening of the gate of the same name in 1911. The last extension dates back to 6 November 1932 (the bell tower was only added in 1948).&nbsp;On 4 September 1944, the town of Lucca was finally free. Luigi Giusti's partisan squads rounded up the town in search of the last Germans. Ten of them took refuge in the parish church of St. Anne, with a mortar and three machine guns, and set up an observation point on the bell tower.&nbsp;On the morning of 5 September, as the partisans reached the Palazzo del Goerno, a final battle took place there, in which Alberto and Ezio Angeli, Marcello Fava and Aldo Marchegiani were the protagonists. After three quarters of an hour, the Germans retreated towards the Serchio river through the fields.&nbsp;The inscription remained, almost mockingly, on the wall next to the church:&nbsp;Unique faithLove of countryUnique willMaking the Italianpeople big.

Church of St. Anne

The Oblates of the Holy Face were a diocesan congregation from Lucca that had chosen to adapt the rules of religious congregations to the life of the secular clergy.Starting in June 1942, first Father Arturo Paoli and Father Guido Staderini and then from November 1943, Father Sirio Niccolai and Father Renzo Tambellini, joined a communal living experience in the premises of the old seminary in Via del Giardino Botanico, 2, (Casa degli Oblati).From June 1944, the house was managed by Monsignor Raffaele Malfatti. The Oblates hosted the diocesan centre of GIAC, the St Vincent's Conference for Graduates and the 'Vita e Penseiro' association chaired by Giovanni Carignani. They also organised a boarding house for transfer students, and the 'Poor Man's Canteen', distributing over 500 soups a day.&nbsp;They helped Jewish people fleeing from Pisa and Livorno, through Giorgio Nissim, but also foreigners, providing them with housing, food, clothing and above all documents. It is estimated that over 700 were assisted during the war.They also provided health care to prisoners in the Pia casa di beneficenza and to refugees concentrated at the GIL, formerly the Royal College of San Frediano.&nbsp;They housed the headquarters of the military CLN from March and from May, with the arrival of Augusto Mancini, who had been released from prison, as well as the political CLN until the end of August. The building was liberated on 5 September.&nbsp;

Casa degli Oblati (Oblate House)

A convent of cloistered nuns (Dominican nuns of the Angels) built in 1520, it was used as a prison from 1806 by Felix I and as a house of correction by Maria Luisa of Bourbon from 1815.From October 1943, it housed numerous resistance fighters and in many cases their families were also held as hostages. From 5 January, Augusto Mancini, a philologist from the University of Pisa and president of the Lucca CLN, was imprisoned there for six months.A memorable action took place on 23 August 1944, when Franco Bonacchi, commander of the town's PAS, penetrated it in broad daylight disguised as a party official and helped three partisans sentenced to death for the assault on the BN headquarters in Castelnuovo Garfagnana to escape.In the post-war period, it was home to jazz musician Chet Baker, among others, who was arrested for drug use and detained from August 1960 to the end of 1961.

War and Resistance in Lucca

Photos

Sites and stories along the route

Memorial of Don Aldo Mei

Former Littorio Palace

Guglielmo Petroni House

Piazza San Michele and the clashes in December 1920

Plaque to Women in the Resistance

Porta Santa Maria Memorial plaque

Railway Station

Porta San Pietro

Pia Casa di Beneficenza

Ducal Palace

Convent of St Augustine

Church of St. Anne

Casa degli Oblati (Oblate House)

St George's Prison

​​War and Resistance in Lucca​

Photos

Sites and stories along the route

Memorial of Don Aldo Mei

Former Littorio Palace

Guglielmo Petroni House

Piazza San Michele and the clashes in December 1920

Plaque to Women in the Resistance

Porta Santa Maria Memorial plaque

Railway Station

Porta San Pietro

Pia Casa di Beneficenza

Ducal Palace

Convent of St Augustine

Church of St. Anne

Casa degli Oblati (Oblate House)

St George's Prison

War and Resistance in Lucca