Mount Tobbio is known to have been the site of some tragic events that indelibly marked the Piedmontese and Italian history of the twentieth century.
In the winter of 1943-44, in fact, a group of partisans and draft agents who opposed the fascist and Nazi regime settled in this area.
The point of reference for all these people became the Benedicta farmhouse which takes its name from the ancient Benedictine monastery that was built on the same site.
At the beginning of 1944 the total number of partisans settled in the area was around a few hundred but only a small part of them possessed weapons or specific military training.
On April 6-7, 1944, to strike resistance and frighten the population, the Nazis surrounded Benedicta and the other nearby farmhouses: some partisans, knowing the area, managed to escape while 400 were captured and deported to concentration camps from where, with few exceptions, they did not return.
Around 150 were shot immediately.
To complete the operation, the Nazis blew up the small Benedicta building.
The Peace Park, located in the territory of the municipality of Bosio, was established thanks to the intervention of the European Union, the Ministry of Economy, the Piedmont Region, the Province of Alessandria, the Mountain Community Appennino Aleramico Obertengo, the municipality of Bosio, by the Capanne di Marcarolo Park Authority and the Memory of Benedicta Association.
The purpose of this park, which affects the places of the massacre of Benedicta, is to preserve and pass on the memory of this dramatic story to make sure that the new generations grow in the awareness that the peace in which we have the privilege of living today has been built at a high price.
To further embellish this park there is on the one hand the beauty of the vegetation and unspoiled nature that distinguishes the site and, on the other, the richness of the local peasant culture and traditions that are manifested in the craftsmanship of iron and wood, in the dairy production (the Capanne cheese), honey (chestnut, wildflower, acacia) and jams.
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