Liberation Route (english version)

Villa Stringari was built in the 16th century by Giovanni Di Poggio.

In 1887, the Dorothean Sisters from Lucca opened a girls’ school there.

Since the end of the 19th century, the people of Porcari had been trying to obtain detachment from the municipality of Capannori, of which they are the most important district.

After unsuccessful attempts in 1890 and 1904, the request was formalised by the Honourable Francesco Croce in 1907. The goal was finally achieved on 22 June 1913.

The first mayor was the lawyer Felice Orsi, a leader in the fight for autonomy.

Villa Stringari was purchased and renovated to become the municipal office.

The square was also redesigned in 1919.

In 1920, due to street riots, Orsi resigned and was succeeded by Amerigo Andreotti.

The Municipality was then commissioned in April 1923 and shortly thereafter entrusted to the young student Raffaello Grassini. In March 1927 Grassini became Porcari’s first fascist podestà (city mayor).

He died on 30 January 1936 as he was about to volunteer for the war in Africa. He was replaced by Dionisio Da Valle and then, from November 1939, by Raffaello Toschi.

In February 1938 the square in front of the Municipality building was named in honor of Guglielmo Marconi. In July 1939 the street connecting Porcari and Capannori was named after Italo Balbo.

Since August 1939 the palace has also housed the district doctor’s surgery.

On 4 September 1944, in liberated Porcari, the partisan commander Arcangelo Toschi gave a speech from the balcony of the Town Hall to avert revenge and abuse.

On 4 September 1944, in liberated Porcari, the partisan commander Arcangelo Toschi gave a speech from the balcony of the Town Hall calling for civility and discouraging revengeful actions.

In the post-war period Porcari’s first mayor was Corrado Del Carlo He was appointed by the partisans because, having lived for a long time in South Africa he knew English.

Giuseppe Arcangelo Fanucchi was subsequently appointed mayor on 27 October 1945.

The first mayor elected was Umberto Giannini who took office on 15 March 1946.

Among the new councillors was Norma Lazzaroni, a candidate from the social-communist front.

Among the first measures was the naming of the square after Felice Orsi and the dedication of a plaque on the façade of the Town Hall in his honor.

In the 1946 election the DC obtained 46.5% of the vote in Pocari, with the PRI receiving 19.8%, the Psiup 14.9% and the PCI only 11.8%.

Between 2002 and 2004 a fresco by Paolo Maiani documenting the history of Porcari was installed in the Council Chamber of the Municipality.

The Cavanis Institute was the most important educational instution in Porcari and one of the most important in the Lucca area.

Reknown for rigourous teaching, the Institute educated an entire ruling class that included some of Porcari’s post-war mayors.

The Congregation of the Schools of Charity, also known as the Cavanis Institute is a men’s religious institute founded in Venice in the early 19th century and characterised by its commitment to education.

At the beginning of the 20th Century, Cherubina Giometti, wido of Anselmo Toschi decided to donate her property to a religious institute that would provide free education for male youth as the Dorothean Sisters wer alreadying doing for girls.

She then turned to the Don Antonio Marraccini, who through Don Mario Del Caro made a connection with the Cavanis Fathers.

After an inspection, they decided to open the Porcari branch of the Congregation of the Schools of Charity on 21 July 1919.

Father Vincenzo Rossi arrived on 6 October, bollowed by three other bothers by the end of the year.
On 21st October the gymnasium and technical school started, followed by the after school and evening school. A residential college was also opened.

On 8 December 1922 the foundation stone was laid for the College church, which went into use in January 1927.

Meanwhile, Father John D’Ambrosi founded a religious women’s association in 1921, which in 1949 was recognized as the Congregation of the Holy Name.

In 1924 Father D’Amborsi was replaced by Father Mansueto Janeselli, who was later replaced by Father Agostino Zamattio.

The number of pupils incrased to over 200 and the Institute became an important driving force for the local economcy.

The College had a theater equipped with a cinema and sports fields. In 1937 it added telephone service, and then the radio in 1938.

In December 1943 the Germans, who installed an air force command post in Tassignano, occupied the College.

The 50 boys remaining at the College were transferred to Vicopelago.

On 20 January 1944, fearing an air attack, the College was emptied as a precautionary measure. However, the partisans managed to avert the bombing.

On 11 March, five German soldiers were involved in a train accident in the Ceracci tunnel between Viareggio and Lucca. Three of them were buried in Porcari.

In October 1944 the Cavanis Fathers returned to the College and on 12 November resumed classes with 80 students, including 30 boarders.

On Christmas Eve the British Red Cross arrived and set up an Indian-run military hospital.

The puplils returend on 16 January.
On 27 May 1945 Rector Father Vincenzo Severi presided over a solemn feast of thanksgiving for peace was held at the College.

Over the course of almost a Century the Cavanis Institute had more than 16,000 pupils. Father Arcangelo Vendrame, who was the last of the Father Cavanis left Porcari in 2020.

Today the historic building is partly occupied by the ITCG Benedetti school. Also in the building are offices of the municipality, including the library and auditorium that are dedicated to Vincenzo Da Massa Carrara who was a former Cavanis pupil, mayor of Porcari, and president of the local banking foundation.

Porcari is a small town in the Lucca area that had long been a community in decline and losing population. But, in the second half of the 20th Centure, thanks to its strategic position and transporation connections, it developed into a triving industrial center.

In 1859, Gran Ducal engineers completed the tunnel under the Arno river which allowed the waters of Lake Sesto to find their way (from the Piana di Lucca) to the Ligurian Seal.

In the same year as the land reclamation, the Lucca-Florence railway was completed. Later in 1881, the peopl of Porcari financed their own transport service based at the train station.

On 20 July 1907, a tram service was started from Monsummano to Lucca, running north of Porcari.

Twenty-six Porcaresi who took part in the Italian-Turkish War departed from this station. A few years later, two hundred who fought in the Great War took the train from this station. Eighty of them did not return.

At the same time, with the transformation to an autonomous municipality, the post office and telegraph office were unified. In 1916 the weekly Friday market began.

In 1923 electric lighting was completed. In 1926 a public telephone was installed in the central bar. With the opening of the Cavanis Institute in 19??, a car service was inaugurated for travel to Montecatini and another for Fucecchio shortly thereafter.

That year also saw the registration of the first car that was owned by the Del Carlo family.

Construction of the Firenze-Mare motorway started in 1928. On 5 August 1933 the motorway was inaugurated and it had an immediate commercial impact.

In July 1935, the first twelve volunteers for the Ethiopian War left from the Porcari station. They later became part of the 86th Battaglione Camicie Nere (Black Shirts Battalion).

In 1938, four licences were granted for the public car-hire service.

In 1940: a new war, new departures from the station, and new deaths. Thirty-five by the end of the war. Mario Del Carlo fought in North Africa. Arcangelo Toschi fought in Russia.

In May 1943, the first bombing raids on Livorno were registered. Evacuees were welcomed in Lucca. By July, more than 600 of these evacuees had arrived in Porcari.

In September 1944, partisans from Porcari gathered at the station to welcome the American liberators.

The war had dramatic consequences. By September 1945 about thirty houses and a dozen bridges were destroyed.

Reconstruction culminated by the end of the 1950s. Porcari’s Mayor Vincenzo Da Massa Carrara, took advantage of the law on depressed areas and his good connections to promote industrialisation which led to Porcari becoming a centre for paper factories in Tuscany.

Arcangelo Toschi’s house in Il Poggetto is the centre of partisan activity in Porcari. From here, through a rudimentary radio, Toschi follows the allied transmissions and communicates the movements of the Germans.

The town of Porcari is characterised by the Torretta Park on the hill and the Church of San Giusto in the valley.

On the road between the two is the district ‘Il Poggetto’.

Here, in his father’s house, Arcangelo Toschi took refuge after 8 September 1943, making it the centre of local partisan activity.

Toschi was born in 1915.

He had studied at the Cavanis and then took up the profession of tailor.

Called up to arms, he had fought in France and Russia. He had also undergone specific training in Germany.
Surprised in Turin by the announcement of the Armistice on 8 September, he managed to return to Porcari, but had to hide from the mandatory recuitment notices of the RSI. In November, he decided to join his former comrade Bruno Stefani in Garfagnana.

Due to an illness in December, he returned to Porcari. In the city of Lucca, he met some members of the CLN (Doctor Frediano Francesconi, lawyer Giovanni Carignani and Professor Augusto Mancini) who entrusted him with the formation of a partisan group.

With the help of his brother-in-law, already listed as an anti-fascist, he formed a group of about fifty elements at the beginning of 1944, divided between the Town Centre, Via Pacconi and Via Diaccio. Among the members of the ‘Poggiocaro’ were deputy commander Aladino Bianchi, who was to become town guard; squad leaders Corrado Della Nina, Dante Giannini, Aldo Visibelli; and Ugo Andreotti, later deputy mayor.

The equipment consists of 22 muskets, a machine gun and some hand grenades.

In mid-April, he was reached by the military leader of the Lucca CLN, Vannuccio Vanni, who asked him to go into action. Arcangelo Toschi then starts an activity of sabotage and espionage for the allies, through Mrs Emma Zekanowski.

He then manages to set up a rudimentary telegraph apparatus with which he gets in touch with Michele Fusco, an Italian-American operator to exchange information.

Thanks to this contact he was able to avert the bombing of the Cavanis College, and report the presence of arms depots in Badia Pozzeveri and Montecarlo, which were blown up on 15 July.

On 3 September, Toschi made contact with the Americans, finally meeting Fusco in person.

On the 4th, the partisans gathered at the train station and marched singing to Via Fossanuova, where they joined the Americans. Together they return to the village, reaching the town square welcomed by the celebrations of the population.

Three days later, the Allied forces send four food trucks to Porcari for residents and evacuees. Weapons are also supplied to the partisans to comb the surrounding area, in which three Germans are actually found.

After the war, Toschi founded the Anpi section in Porcari, from which he later distanced himself due to excessive politicisation. Suffering from TB and affected by several bereavements, he continued his activity as a tailor and also as a radio amateur. He is very active in associationism. He passed away in 1994, leaving behind an important volume of memoirs.

The “total war” caused casualties mainly among civilians. Porcari too was caught up in the trail of blood caused by this clash between the Germans and the Allies.

The first civilian casualty of the war was Angela Ramacciotti. Angela was a 9-year-old girl. She was run over by a Bersaglieri truck coming from Altopascio. She died in the accident that occurred near ‘Croce del Medico’ (Doctor’s Cross) on 5 September 1942.

However, the most dramatic moments came at the beginning of September 1944. Porcari was then in the middle of the front line with Americans bombing and the Germans in retreat and venting their frustrations along the way.

On September 2, 1944, 72 year old Raffaello Toschi and 17 year old Arcangelo Del Carlo died from the bombing. They were caught in the middle of boming from the south by the Allies and from Pizzorne to the north by the Germans. The same fate was suffered in Pescia ten days later with the death of Giuseppe Benetti from Porcari, 61 years old.

It was the next day after those initial boming deaths, September 3, 1944 that brought the most tragic episode. Porcari was caught up in the German’s trail of blood that extended throughout Lucca and cost over 700 lives.
One of the lives lost to the rageful revenge of the retreating Germans was 66 year old Pietro Della Nina who was shot to death. His daughter’s husband, Francesco Franceschini was wounded. The well in the locality of Angiolini marks the place where these shootings occurred.

According to an account by partisan commander Arcangelo Toschi, the shootings were in reprisal for an aggression suffered shortly before by a drunken fascist who wanted to rehabilitate himself in the eyes of the anti-fascists.

The next day, September 4th, the Allies arrived in Porcari and were welcomed festively by the partisans. The last shots were fired on the 8th.

At that time, the cost for funerals and burials of dead civilians was born by the municipality. Among those buried by the municipaly were Giuseppe Matteucci who was murdered by the Republican fascist Alfredo Del Barga, and a worker Felice Bertocchini who died when a land mine exploded.

Due to the wisdome of commander Toschi, no showdowns occurred in Porcari. Only the town clerk and the town cantoner were suspended from duty because they had compromised with fascism.

While two women get their heads shaved in the square and some fascists were employed as labourers without pay, no widespread vengence or bloody reprisals were recorded.