Monument to Fallen Partisans

While visiting Bologna’s Fountain of Neptune, look slightly to the northwest to the east-facing wall of the Palazzo d’Accursio to see a memorial to the fallen partisans of Bologna’s World War II-era resistance movement.

The memorial began shortly after liberation, as indicated at the top of it. Family members of partisans killed in the square—partisans were both hanged in the square and shot against this wall—began putting up photos of the dead, leaving flowers and funerary offerings.

Then, what began as an impromptu memorial to people killed on this site expanded to include the more than 2,000 men and women from Bologna in the resistance movement who were killed. Their images, protected behind glass, still gaze out at passersby today. 

An image of the memorial featured prominently on the cover of Harmony in Ultraviolet, an album by Canadian composer Tim Hecker, released in 2006.