Via dei Georgofili bombing

The Torre dei Pulci, the main target of the bombing incident

The via dei Georgofili bombing (Italian: Strage di via dei Georgofili) was set by the Mafia very early in the morning of 27 May 1993 in Florence, Italy.

The attempt was carried on with a Fiat Fiorino full of explosives, parked near the Torre dei Pulci, between the Uffizi and the Arno River. The edifice was the seat of the Accademia dei Georgofili. The large explosion caused the death of five people: Caterina Nencioni (50 days old), Nadia Nencioni (9 years old), Dario Capolicchio (22 years old), Angela Fiume (36 years old), Fabrizio Nencioni (39 years old); 48 other people were wounded. The tower and other buildings were destroyed and others damaged, including the Uffizi Gallery, where three paintings were irretrievably destroyed, including an Adoration of the Shepherds (1620) by Gerard van Honthorst.[1]

The massacre was ordered by the Corleonesi mafia clan, led by Totò Riina, in response to the application of the article 41-bis law, by which jailed mafiosi were isolated and put under severe restrictive measures. The bombing was followed by another two: on 27 July, in Rome, near the churches of St. John Lateran and San Giorgio al Velabro and at Milan, in via Palestro, where another car bomb killed five people. The choice to hit cultural and church targets was partly to destabilize the Italian government, but also because the Mafia felt that the Roman Catholic Church had abrogated an unwritten hands-off policy toward traditional organized crime in Southern Italy.[2] Later, pentito Gaspare Spatuzza claimed to have repented for his participation in the incidents.[3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Delavaux, Celine (2012). The Impossible Museum: The Best Art You'll Never See. Prestel. pp. 86–9. ISBN 9783791347158.
  2. ↑ Tagliabue, John (15 July 1994). "Bombings Laid to Mafia War on Italy and Church". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 November 2012.
  3. ↑ Bravi, Alessandra. "Spatuzza: Firenze, perdono E cita Dell'Utri e il premier". Il Corriere della Sera. RCS.

External links


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