On April 23, the exhibition Clergy, war, resistance in the province of Lucca opens, which will remain open at Palazzo Ducale until June 5. The calendar continues on April 24, at 5 pm, with the presentation of the book You don't know the hills where blood has been spread (Unicopli 2025), edited by Gianluca Fulvetti and Jonathan Pieri.

The exhibition Clergy, war, resistance in the province of Lucca was promoted by the Province of Lucca, the Archdioceses of Lucca and Pisa and the Diocese of Massa Carrara-Pontremoli, together with the Historical Institute of the Resistance and the Contemporary Age, the School for Peace and the Peace Park of Sant’Anna di Stazzema. The aim of the exhibition is to raise awareness of the final years of the Second World War, when, after 8 September 1943, Italy – occupied by the Nazi armed forces and subjected to a resurgent fascism of the Social Republic – was crossed by war.

The focus, therefore, is on the work that was then carried out by the priests who worked in the parishes of the four dioceses, as evidence of a widespread involvement in the dramas, choices, and struggles of the populations of the provincial territory in the context of total war.

The choice of biographies – deliberately limited to the secular clergy – offers examples of lives and events (some well-known, others less so), in order to document a wide variety of situations, choices and actions ranging from initiatives to support the civilian population, to the protection of the various categories of victims of the conflict, to the various networks of Civil Resistance and the clear anti-fascist commitment, in collaboration with the armed Resistance.

The exhibition enjoys the patronage of the Tuscany Region, the Ferruccio Parri National Institute, the Tuscan Episcopal Conference and was made possible thanks to the contribution of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca. MORE INFO