This weekend in Barga was held the 71st annual 25th April celebrations to commemorate the liberation of the country by Allied troops in the Second World War.
The celebrations started this morning in Tiglio with the unveiling of a plaque to commemorate the deaths of the Partigiani Giocondo Gonnella and Aladino Mencacci and then continued back in Barga Vecchia with a presentation “Noi ricordiamo. Storie di Resistenza” organised by the Comune di Barga, ANPI Barga, Istituto Storico Lucchese sez. di Barga and the Museo della Liberazione di Lucca.
The events then moved onto the Museum Le Stanze della Memoria where another plaque in memory of Amos Paoli (Barga, 1917-Massarosa, 1944), partigiano, Medaglia d’oro al valor militare was unveiled by the sister of Amos Paoli.
Finally, under teeming rain, the procession move onto the Piazza della Vittoria were a wreath was laid for those fallen in the war
The 25th April is the day that Italy commemorates the liberation of the country by Allied troops in the Second World War.
The holiday is meant to honour all those who died during the war, from soldiers fighting overseas to civilian victims of Allied bombings and atrocities committed during Nazi Germany’s bitter retreat from its former allies territory.
The lives of those who served as partisans in the Italian Resistance are especially honoured.
Click on the link below to listen to Natale Bertolini reminiscing (in Italiano) about just how life was like in Barga on the first Liberation Day.
Additional images from Alessandra Magnani
Liberation Day : 2009 | 2010 |2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014