Pratovecchio Stia

The monument is dedicated to the 17 partisans executed at the old cemetery in Stia by the Germans on April 17th 1944. They belonged to the I Brigata Romagnola (Gruppo Brigate Romagna) and had been captured the previous day in the Oia Valley during nazi-fascist rounding-up operations carried out in the Tuscan-Romagna Apennines. Located in front of the old Stia Cemetery, it is a concrete structure made up of a series of arched "arms" reaching upwards as if towards some ideal. The monument as a whole also contains two memorial slabs placed on the outer wall of the Cemetery and 17 small memorial stones placed to the left of the driveway, each bearing the name of one of the Fallen (except for the nameless one). The two rectangular stone slabs bear epigraphs with bronze lettering in relief: one, embedded in a metal structure, is dedicated to the 17 partisans executed, the other, attached with four metal hooks, is a homage of the people of Stia to its Martyrs and to those Fallen for Freedom. The memorial stones are simple, roughly rectangular stones on each of which is fixed a small metal plaque engraved with the name of the fallen partisan and his date of death. The lettering is lined with black paint. The 17 memorial stones have recently replaced the same number of irregular horizontal stone slabs bearing the names of the partisans in bronze lettering in relief: the weather had eroded them, hence their replacement. Many of the names are incorrect. At the entrance to the driveway, on the right, is a panel of the "Sentieri della Libertà" (Pathways of Freedom), a series of itineraries in the Casentino Forests National Park (Monte Falterona and Campigna) which commemorate each episode; in this case the events leading up to the massacre of 17 young partisans from Romagna are described.

Along the driveway that leads to the old Cemetery, in addition to the monument to the 17 partisans executed, there are other monuments, plaques and memorial stones dedicated to the War Dead, thus forming a sort of small Garden of Remembrance.

The memorial stone is situated inside the old cemetery of Stia, on the spot where the bodies of the 17 partisans executed by the Germans on April 17th 1944 were interred next to the cemetery wall. They belonged to the I Brigata Romagnola (Gruppo Brigate Romagna) and had been captured the previous day in the Oia Valley during rounding-up operations carried out in the Tuscan-Romagna Apennines. It is a rectangular marble slab slightly rounded at the top. The epigraph bears the date of the massacre but does not give the names of the dead, who were only identified at a later date. One remains unknown. The lettering is engraved in marble and lined with black paint. The slab rests on a stone plinth with three levels, on one of which there is a bronze votive lamp. Four small stone pillars are set around the memorial slab.