Piazzale Loreto

Piazzale Loreto is a major town square in Milan, Italy.

Piazzale Loreto

Piazza Quindici Martiri
The square in 2012
Location	Milan, Italy
Coordinates	45.48645°N 9.21615°E / 45.48645; 9.21615
Other
Known for	Mussolini's corpse on 29 April 1945

From left to right, the dead bodies of Bombacci, Mussolini, Petacci, Pavolini and Starace in Piazzale Loreto, 29 April 1945.

The name Loreto is also used in a wider sense to refer to the district surrounding the square, which is part of the Zone 2 administrative division, in the northeastern part of the city. The name "Loreto" derives from an old sanctuary that used to be there and that was dedicated to Our Lady of Loreto, (a town in the province of Ancona).

The Milan metro Loreto station on line 1 is located partially underneath the square; it is an important transfer station with line 2. The tracks and platforms of this latter line are located, however, underneath nearby Piazza Argentina.

The Piazzale Loreto was the scene of the public execution of 15 Italian partisans on 10 August 1944, hand picked by Theo Saevecke, head of the Gestapo in Milan, as a reprisal for a partisan attack on a German military convoy. The executed were left on display for a number of days.[1] This event is remembered as the Piazzale Loreto massacre.

Piazzale Loreto was the scene of one of the best-known events in the modern history of Italy, namely the public display of Benito Mussolini's corpse on 29 April 1945. The day before, Mussolini, his mistress Clara Petacci and some other high-ranking Fascists had been captured and shot by partisans in Guilino near Lake Como. Their bodies were taken to Milan and hung upside down from the roof of an Esso petrol station in the square, located between Corso Buenos Aires and Viale Andrea Doria. Also on 29 April 1945 Achille Starace was taken to the square after a short trial and shown the body of Mussolini just before being shot himself. The body of Starace was subsequently strung up next to Mussolini's. The bodies were photographed as a crowd vented their rage upon them.[2] The display of these bodies took place in the same spot where, one year before, Fascist squads had exposed the bodies of fifteen Milanese civilians (the so-called "Martyrs of Piazzale Loreto") whom they had killed in retaliation against partisan activity. The square had even been renamed "Piazza Quindici Martiri" in honour of the executed.[3]

After the war, the appearance of the square was changed to adjust to the increasing road traffic of the city.