Description
The Cippo Martiri (Martyrs memorial) is a reminder of the last and most serious crime committed by the Nazi-Fascists in the town of Jesi, exactly one month before the Liberation.
20th June 1944. Around thirty young people gathered in Via Roma to discuss the events of the day. On that average Tuesday, they were met by a group of Germans and fascists, who suddenly arrived on site and forced them to go to the Massacci farmhouse in Villa Armanni, in the hamlet of Montecappone. What seemed to be one of the usual round-ups of workers quickly became a tragedy: the young people were searched, beaten and released. Seven of them, however, found a different fate.
Identified as spies, allegedly by a woman from Fabriano, the boys were executed without trial after cruel torture, because they were recognised as partisans. Unrecognisable due to the violence they had suffered, they were led into a ditch not far from the villa and killed with machine-gun fire, stabs and beating.
The tragic story of the seven boys, their suffering, screams and cries of despair have been narrated over time by witnesses present in the hamlet of Montecappone. On 20th June 1945, in memory of that tragic event, the municipal administration decided to erect a memorial slab at the place where the young men from Jesi were massacred.
In 1985, the municipality decided to add a new sculptural group to the existing work. The idea arose from a bronze prize that was awarded during swimming competitions, which in those years were dedicated to the Martyrs of 20th June 1944.
The work, created in bronze in 1988 by artist Massimo Ippoliti from Jesi using the lost wax casting technique, represents seven vertebrae joined by marrow and connected to the three moods caused by the massacre: anger, distress and rebirth. The brazier, into which the marrow ends, becomes the symbol of eternal memory.
The Martyrs of Montecappone:
Armando Angeloni 25 years old - Jesi
Luigi Angeloni 18 years old - Jesi
Francesco Cecchi 18 years old - Jesi
Alfredo Santinelli 18 years old - Jesi
Mario Saveri 23 years old - Jesi
Enzo Carboni 20 years old - S. Eufemia di Aspromonte
Calogero Grasceffo - Agrigento