Tablet of the Four Martyrs
The tablet situated under the arcades of Via Roma, at the entrance of Vicolo Quattro Martiri, former Vicolo Barra di Ferro, commemorates the tragic death of Dario Azzalin, Francesco Racca, Alberto Cavallera and Andrea Micheletti. They were four young men who gave their lives for the liberation of our town from the Nazi troops.
Azzalin, Racca and Cavallera belonged to a SAP section (Patriotic Group of Action), whose central headquarters were housed in the "Barra di Ferro" Palace, located in a building overlooking the alley with the same name.
Dario Azzalin, who had worked in a workshop since an early age, remained maimed in his left hand and disabled in his right hand due to a work accident. His parents decided to send him to an Orthopaedic hospital in Milan, where he learned to use his left prosthesis hand and his disabled right hand perfectly. Then, he resumed his studies, getting a degree in mechanical engineering. Thanks to this he was employed in the Breda workshops, where he became antifascist and took part in the 1943 strikes. His position became too risky and made him decide to return to Cuneo. In his town he met his old friends again, Including Claudio Biancani, head of the Communist Party, who entrusted him the task to form and lead the SAP section of Cuneo.
Azzalin always acted with extreme simplicity and in a very efficient way, persuading his childhood friends and the guys living in the alley, including Alberto Cavallera and Francesco Racca, to join the SAP.
Azzalin and Racca died of a gun shot by a German mortar while they were on the sidewalk in front of Corso Nizza 20 with other young men. A tablet commemorates their death. After the liberation, Alberto Cavallera joined the police. He lost his life on 12th June 1945, wounded mortally during a road block at the station of Porta Nuova by two members of the Italian SS.
Andrea Micheletti, known with the nom de guerre of "Tarzan", was a partisan in the Brigade of Val Corsaglia of the 3rd Alps Independent Division. In his life, he stood up for numerous acts, a reason why he got the Medal for Civic Valour in his memory.
He was shot on 24th of March 1945 at Roccarasa Sant'Anna, in the municipality of Chiusa Pesio.