“Resistance was born in Abruzzo, in the villages around Maiella and we are all sons of Maiella”: these are the words of Nicola Troilo, a witness of the epic of “Brigata Maiella” in the story of Italian Resistance against nazifascism. Founded by Ettore Troilo in Casoli on 5 December 1943, Brigata Maiella was among the protagonists of the birth of a new free and democratic Italy with its fighters coming mostly from the villages at the foot of Maiella and was the only partisan group awarded of a “Gold Medal for military value”.

The “Brigade” was created to oppose the German occupation in Abruzzo, when the region was split in two by the Gustav Line and the population suffered raids, massacres, destructions and endless violence. Ettore Troilo was able to let the Brigata Maiella join the English Eighth Armadaand then the Polish command. On the 3 February 1944 the Germans killed 12 patriots in the bloody battle of Pizzoferrato, three of those martyrs were from Pennadomo: Lorenzo D’Angelo, Luigi Donato Di Francesco and Nicola Di Renzo.

Brigata Maiella didn’t fight on the side of the Allies to free only Abruzzo, it continued also in Marche, Emilia Romagna, Veneto until 25 April 1945, the Italian Liberation Day. The “Gold Medal for military value” was conferred on 14 November 1963 because “for 15 months of harsh fight against the German invader, sustained only by an immense love for their Native Land, the Patriots of Maiella, have always faced overpowering enemies, and a written a page of superb heroism in the history of reborn Italy”.

Pennadomo is linked to the history of Brigata Maiella also because it was the birth place of the ancestors of Ettore, as a plaque on the facade of the Troilo Palace tells: “Here Giuseppe and Nicola were born and lived the grandfather and the father of Ettore Troilo, the founder of the glorious group of Abruzzo. 39 citizens of Pennadomo joined the patriotic ideals of Brigata Maiella writing “a remarkable page of heroism and sacrifice”.

[Credits | Text: Ottavio Di Renzo De Laurentis | Translation: Mirella Rapa | Voice and music: Studio Qreate | Photo: Laura Di Biase]