Credits: Associazione Memoria della Benedicta
Where are we?
We are at the Benedicta, in Bosio
The “Memoria della Benedicta” Association promotes the preservation and promotion of the place where 75 partisans were shot by the Republican National Guard and the German troops in April 1944.
The so-called ‘Benedicta’ farmhouse dates back to the Middle Ages and was originally a Benedictine convent. The partisan command of the III Ligurian Brigade was based here from the spring of 1944.
On 7th April 1944, enormous German and Fascist forces surrounded Benedicta and shot 75 partisans, mostly very young people with little military experience and without adequate weaponry. They were later buried along with a further 20 victims. The assault was part of a sweep that covered the entire area, during which 147 partisans were killed, fell in combat, or taken prisoner and then shot between 6th and 11th April. Another 400 were deported to Germany where half managed to escape, but many died in concentration camps, from which very few returned. German and Fascist losses amounted to 4 dead and 24 wounded. The Benedicta massacre was one of the most terrible, but the partisan formations later found even more strength.
In the post-war period, the ruins of Benedicta were abandoned, resulting in their progressive degradation and the almost complete erasure of evidence of the violence of the assault. It was not until the 1960s that the families of the murdered partisans built a chapel on the site of the shooting and a memorial was created listing the names of those shot. The Benedicta Memorial Association has managed the monument area since 2003, promoting its enhancement through cultural activities and the creation of a museum and documentation centre dedicated to the war, the Resistance and deportation.
Facility or museum: yes
Website: benedicta.org
Geographic location: Bosio (AL), Piedmont
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