The Resistance Scenario

Malesco and its surroundings were the setting of many of the war events of the Resistance War in 1944 and are now part of the historical paths dedicated to the main characters of the Resistance in the Ossola Valley: the paths Teresa Binda and Nino Chiovini.

The history and monuments of the Resistance in Valle Vigezzo

15 Partisans were imprisoned and tortured by the Fascists in Malesco’s nursery in June 1944. This is the reason why the Municipality built a fountain in the square which faces the nursery to remember them. Those young men were then brutally shot in Finero on the 23^rd of the same month. At the entrance of Finero there is a monument to remember them and on the walls of the cemetery the bullets’ holes are still visible to remind us of the cruelty of that Civil War.

On the narrow street which takes from Finero to the Cannobina Valley, The Partisan Commanders Attilio Moneta from Malesco and Alfredo di Dio were shot and killed by the Fascists coming from the Cannobina Valley. The landscape has not changed since then apart from the plaques which were put along the street to remember such brave men. Some scenes of the movie “40 days of freedom” (about the Ossola Partisan Republic) were shot there.