#Story
San Lorenzo bombing
One of the crucial moments for Italian history is 19 July 1943, when the Allies bombed the San Lorenzo district, speeding up the fall of Mussolini, who a week later was defeated after a vote of no-confidence by the Great Council of Fascism and arrested.
The Roman population was not prepared for a large aerial attack and the psychological impact was big. Rome, up until that moment, was intact and all of its inhabitants were convinced it would have remained so. The Allied bombing of San Lorenzo also had large consequences on the subsequent political decisions: in the aftermath of the bombing, the king Vittorio Emanuele III was persuaded to get rid of Mussolini as he was unable to carry on a war which was already lost. In the San Lorenzo district, on the main trail of the “Park of the Fallen on 19 July 1943” there is a monument remembering the names of the 1,492 victims. In the neighbourhood, you can still see traces of the bombing in the drastic changes in buildings, interruptions and empty spaces. The only appearance of Pope Pio XII during the war was straight after the bombing of San Lorenzo, to meet the citizens in the midst of the ruins. Just outside San Lorenzo, in the Tiburtino district, you can find plenty of examples of Fascist architecture, such as the Sapienza University.