Piazzale Loreto

Piazzale Loreto is a major town square Milan, Italy.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.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 near the Lake Como. Their bodies were taken to Milan and hung upside down from the roof of an Esso petrol station in the square. 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. Twenty years of fascist dictatorschip and two years of Italian Social Republic have been really too much for the Italian people and the wrath was uncontainable.