Sasso Mobile

Just a few days before the 8th of September 1943, a fierce column of German troops, tanks and cannons passed through Vergato heading south, sweeping away any hope of peace that the signing of the armistice between Italy and the Allies may have generated in the rest of the country. On the 27th of November Vergato was bombed with the aim of interrupting road and rail links between the north and the front-lines. A daytime air raid by the allies caused 52 deaths and about a hundred casualties: the target was meant to be the bridges on the Reno River, however a populated area was hit, on a market day. Following several attacks the town was slowly evacuated and in October 1944 the scene saw a clear division: the Germans went to ground in the mountains of Castelnuovo (a hamlet of Vergato) and Monte Pero, while the allies were in Stanco, Grizzana and Monte Salvaro. Vergato, at the centre of this area, suffered frequent rounding up of civilians. In 2002 the Council of Vergato received the Gold Medal for Civil Merit for the suffering endured in the numerous bombings and for the solidarity shown towards those evacuated.