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Details of the souvenirs sold in the souvenir shops of Predappio | EUROM
the opponents of Fascism, a fact that indirectly sympathizers – and also miscalculated the size of
strengthened its image – so much so that when, on that world. The measures of public order designed
28 October 1944, it was liberated by Polish soldiers to rein in the external effects of their presence
who had waited two days to make their entry were of little use. Throughout the 1960s, Predappio
coincide with the date of the launch of the “march became a place of opposing memories which often
on Rome”, the New York Times announced the event ended in violent confrontations; the administrative
in large letters on its front page. and political hegemony of the left was not enough
In the immediate post-war period, when the
to discourage the presence of neo-Fascists. The
cultural and political legacy of the Resistance was tomb of the Mussolini family became a shrine for
still predominant, Predappio could hardly serve an unwanted “tourism” that caused considerable
as a destination for those nostalgic for the Fascist tension. The Fascist sympathizers knew they were
past. All this changed in 1957, when Mussolini’s not welcome; sometimes stones were thrown at
body became a political bargaining chip for the their cars and restaurants were not always willing to
constitution of a government under the Christian serve them because of the risk of fighting. The year
Democrat Adone Zoli. Zoli was also a friend of when this conflict came to a head was 1971, when
Rachele Guidi, the widow of the Duce, who had the anti-Fascists joined together to form a large-
lived in his home. In his essay Il corpo del duce, scale popular mobilization. For a week, at the end of
Sergio Luzzatto describes in detail the political April, Predappio and Forlì were the scene of clashes,
circumstances that led the government to authorize assaults, bomb attacks, and street demonstrations
the transfer of Mussolini’s body to the family which were dispersed by the police. Shortly
tomb of the San Cassiano cemetery in Predappio, afterwards, a bomb was placed in the cemetery of
after obtaining parliamentary support from the San Cassiano. Checkpoints were organized to prevent
notoriously pro-Fascist Italian Social Movement. unwanted visitors from accessing Predappio, passing
And it was precisely the transfer of the body that cars were searched, and an “active surveillance”
reinstated Predappio as the symbol for which it had policy was implemented that often bypassed the
been built, opening up a period of mobilizations official law enforcement agencies. This tension
and clashes between supporters and opponents, discouraged pilgrimages for several years, at least
and revitalizing the memory of the regime. until 1983, the centenary of the birth of Mussolini,
Obviously, those who made the decision or who when thousands of nostalgici invaded Predappio.
shared it, like the then Communist mayor Egidio
Another fundamental step regarding the
Proli, underestimated the impact that the burial of dictator’s memory was the decision in the early
Mussolini’s body would have had on the world of his 1990s of the left-wing town council to authorize
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Observing Memories
ISSUE 3