Scalzi Prison

On July 17, 1944, a unit of the Verona GAP (Patriotic Action Group) attacked the Scalzi Prison, an RSI state prison considered impenetrable, and freed communist trade unionist Giovanni Roveda, who had been imprisoned there for six months.

After being secretly transferred to Milan, Roveda was reinstated to the provisional leadership of the Italian Communist Party for northern Italy. He returned to Turin, where, after Liberation, he was appointed Mayor by the National Liberation Committee (CLN), a position he held until December 1946, when he joined the Constituent Assembly of Italy, later becoming a Senator.

Some of the partisans involved in the attack on the prison were, however, wounded during the operation. Danilo Preto was mortally wounded, and Lorenzo Fava was captured and shot a month later.

Today, all that remains of the prison is a shred of the wall and a commemorative plaque. In 1988, the Cipresso (Cypress) sculpture, a work by Vittore Bocchetta, was installed. In October 1993, the President of the Republic awarded the City of Verona the Gold Medal for Military Valour. This event is celebrated every year by the municipal authorities, the ANPI, and the Verona Institute for the History of the Resistance and Contemporary Italy.

Photo: The Scalzi prison in 70’s, before demolition