Last night hundreds of Riminesi gathered in the beautiful surroundings of the courtyard of the church of San Agostino for an open-air concert in memory of Rimini’s three martyrs, Mario Cappelli, Luigi Nicolò, Adelio Pagliarani, after whom Piazza Tre Martiri is named.
On the 16th of August 1944 the three were executed by hanging (they had already been savagely beaten during their detention) in Rimini’s main square, then known as Piazza Giulio Cesare (the presumed site of Caesar’s famous alea iacta est – the dice is thrown – speech). The three had been members of Italy’s partisan army, and had been caught after sabotaging harvesting machinery – the Nazis in 1944 had an extensive distribution program to harness Italian food and labour to the war effort.
On a warm summer’s evening in prosperous and beautiful Rimini it’s difficult to take a step back in history, but this concert organised annually by ANPI, the Italian Partisan’s Association, manages to eloquently mix the pleasure of enjoying a concert in the open-air with the lessons of history.
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