Montefiorino Free Zone

Parco della Resistenza, Monte Santa Giulia

In November 1943 one of the first groups of partisans headed for the Apennines and came to Monte Santa Giulia at Monchio, Palagano. They were a group of men from Sassuolo led by Giovanni Rossi (LINK: 14. Frassinoro: Plaque commemorating Giovanni Rossi), a former NCO in the army. The Monte Santa Giulia area was to continue to be strategic throughout the story of the resistance in the Modena area; i...

See more

Parco dei Caduti

Hard hit by the operations of Rossi's "rebels" (LINK: 6. Monchio: Parco della Resistenza, Monte S. Giulia), the Fascists attempted to respond: during the first few months of 1944 Francesco Bocchi, the Commissar in charge at Montefiorino, requested the dispatch of German troops on several occasions. At dawn on 18 March 1944, units of the Herman Göring division, accompanied by Fascist militias, sea...

See more

Monument to the Costrignano Brigade

Costrignano is a village near Palagano. Standing between Susano and Monchio, it was caught up in the massacre (LINK: 7. Monchio: Parco Caduti and the monument to the victims of the massacre). After the search and round-up in summer 1944, it became the base of the brigade the same name, led by Filippo Papa. In mid September this formation was involved in the battle of Palaveggio, where several of i...

See more

Buca, Susano

The Marastoni family lived at La Buca, near the village of Susano (Palagano). During the search and round-up which preceded the massacre on 18 March 1944 their home was torched and six people were murdered: Delia Albicini Marastoni, her two sons aged eight and ten, a three-year-old orphan and an elderly couple.
A commemorative plaque recalls the episode, while the ruins of the house and the...

See more

Monument to Father Sante Bartolai

Father Sante Bartolai was parish priest of Palagano from 1942, with responsibility for the catholic youth movement in the towns and villages of the right Dragone valley. He actively organised and supported the first local partisan bands. Involved in the skirmishes with the Fascists near Savoniero on 9 March, Father Sante decided to stay and care for the injured. This led to his arrest, and he was ...

See more

Castle and Museo della Resistenza

From 18 June 1944 the Castle at Montefiorino, previously the town's Republic Guard station, became the unified Headquarters of the partisans from the provinces of Modena and Reggio Emilia who had taken control of the Liberated Zone. The resistance in this area was led by Armando. He was assisted by Commissar Davide (Osvaldo Poppi). The Division's prisons were also in the Castle. At the end of the ...

See more

Memorial to Tincani and Martelli

In December 1943, the National Guard stationed at Montefiorino set to work to force young fugitives to report for military service with Mussolini's rump Republic. On 23 December a Carabinieri military policeman was killed in a fire-fight with Teofilo Fontana's partisans. The next day, Fascist units carried out search and round-up operations, arresting a young man called Carlo Tincani, amongst othe...

See more

Castello di Farneta

After the search and round-up in August 1944, after their initial disorganised retreat, the Province of Modena partisans regrouped and retained control of some of the territory originally in the Liberated Zone. It was governed by the Mountain National Liberation Committee (CLN), which held its first session on 4 December 1944; the Committee coordinated and encouraged the action of the municipaliti...

See more

Hydroelectric power station, Farneta

The “Romeo Melli” hydroelectric power station was built by the Moglia and Secchia river authority in four years, from 1924 to 1928, and uses the waters of the Dolo and the Dragone, both tributaries of the Secchia. One of the few episodes of social tension against the Fascist regime in the Modena Apennines occurred during the construction of the power station, in 1925, when five hundred workers...

See more

Monument to the Republic of Montefiorino

After the events at Gusciola, and the search and round-up operations which followed, the local formation led by Teofilo Fontana and Cesario Palandri, “Balin”, took refuge in the small hamlet of Villanova, above Farneta.
Early in June 1944 the Sassuolo partisans led by Giuseppe Barbolini also used Villanova as their base for a short time. Here they managed to recover an allied airdrop an...

See more

Landing field

During the period of the Liberated Zone in summer 1944, the partisans built a landing field for reconnaissance aircraft at Frassinoro. A parachute battalion of the CIL (Italian Liberation Corps), belonging to the 185th Nembo Regiment, an officer from which had already been parachuted into the area on 26 July, was also supposed to land there on the night of 2 August. However, the start of the Germa...

See more

Plaque commemorating Giovanni Rossi

In January 1944 Alberto Fini, a common criminal admitted to his band as a guide by Giovanni Rossi, killed a civilian associate of the partisans. A former soldier from Salerno, Ugo Stanzione, received permission to eliminate Fini but was killed by the latter in the attempt; the other partisans reacted by killing Fini. The Modena Communist Federation attempted to remove Rossi from the command of the...

See more

II Partisan Division Headquarters

During the time of the summer 1944 Liberated Zone, Piandelagotti was the headquarters of the II Division of the Central Emilian Armed Forces, comprising 800-900 men and commanded by Iris Malagoli, “Mario di Modena”. The Division consisted of partisans who had been with Armando in the Panaro valley and men from the plain. A partisan first aid post was created at Piandelagotti. The town was atta...

See more

Liberation Monument

The Germans of the Herman Göring division camped here after the Monchio massacre before moving on to Gazzano and Cervarolo. During the period of the Liberated Zone, the cavalry of the II Division were stationed at Madonna di Pietravolta, under the command of "Il Maresciallo".
Pietravolta is mentioned by Davide in a letter to the Emilia Romagna Command of the Resistance as one of the corner...

See more

Primary school at Case Cerbiani

The first partisan hospital in the Liberated Zone was established at Fontanaluccia. A first infirmary was created in the school at Case Cerbiani. It was directed by Dr Gerolamo Andreaoli, an anti-Fascist evacuated to Fontanaluccia. He was aided by Dr Luigi De Toffoli, who was taken prisoner by Armando's partisans and then decided to join the resistance cause. When the August 1944 search and round-...

See more

Case Cattalini Monument

An infirmary, directed by Dr Luigi De Toffoli, was established at the hamlet of Case Cattalini, north of Civago, in summer 1944. Some of the partisans evacuated from the hospital at Fontanaluccia were transferred there at the end of July, and in mid August it provided shelter and medical care to those wounded in the fighting at Passo delle Forbici on 2 August, when the Germans encountered fierce r...

See more

Commemorative complex

After the battle of Cerrè Sologno, the German authorities decided that more systematic repression was needed. On 20 March 1944, assisted by the National Guard stationed at Reggio Emilia, a unit of the Herman Göring division, which had already committed the massacre at Monchio, carried out a search and round-up operation at the hamlets of Civago and Cervarolo, sacking and torching homes. Four men...

See more

Memorial stone to the fallen

7 January 1945 saw the start of a German assault on the zone under partisan control, in both the Modena and the Reggio Emilia Apennines. The search and round-up operation lasted four days, with a series of skirmishes and fire-fights, especially in and around Novellano. In spite of their serious losses (twenty dead and about forty wounded), the partisans succeeded in withdrawing in good order, and ...

See more

Monument to the first airdrop

Lama Golese was the location of the Reggio Emilia mountain partisan training camp, and it was here, on the night of 19 May 1944, that the Allies made the first airdrop. Apart from its strategic value, this event was of great political significance: the airdrop of weapons and logistic and medical equipment constituted full recognition of the partisans' guerrilla operations.
The Airdrop and t...

See more

Priest’s house of Father Pasquino Borghi

Father Pasquino Borghi, born in 1903, was parish priest at Coriano-Tapignola from the early Forties. After Italy's Armistice with the Allies and the deposing of Mussolini on 8 September 1943, he joined the partisan movement under the name of “Albertario” and the priest's house at Tapignola became a shelter for Allied prisoners, Italian deserters and partisans, making it a key point of referenc...

See more

Centro culturale “Arrigo Benedetti”

At the end of May 1944, Villa Minozzo, formerly the site of the National Guard headquarters, was occupied by the partisans. In June the Liberated Zone was declared, and the partisan formations from the Provinces of Reggio Emilia and Modena united under Armando's command. Villa Minozzo was chosen as the headquarters of the Reggio Emilia partisans, led by Riccardo Cocconi, “Miro” (commander) and...

See more

Priest’s house of Father Domenico Orlandini

Father Domenico Orlandini became parish priest at Poiano, his native village, in 1941. After the 8 September Armistice, his home became a point of reference for escaped Allied prisoners, Italian deserters and partisans. His closest associate was Father Pasquino Borghi, and after the latter's arrest, Father Domenico actively enrolled in the resistance, assuming the battle name “Carlo” (a decisi...

See more

Commemorative column

In March 1944 a formation was in operation in the Apennines above Reggio Emilia including Modena fighters from the Barbolini detachment, lead by Giuseppe, and the Reggio partisans under Riccardo Cocconi "Miro". The first combat with German and Fascist forces took place on 15 March at Cerrè Sologno. The partisans won the day but lost some men; Giuseppe Barbolini, seriously wounded in one arm, temp...

See more