Biggest terrorist atrocity in Italy's history killed 85
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The scene outside Bologna railway station in the aftermath
of the explosion on August 2, 1980 |
Italy suffered the most devastating terrorist outrage in its history on this day in 1980 with the bombing of Bologna's main railway station.
A massive 23kg (51lbs) of explosive packed into a suitcase left in a crowded waiting room was detonated at 10.25am, creating a blast that destroyed much of the main building of the station and badly damaged a train on one of the platforms.
Many people, locals and tourists, Italians and foreign nationals, were caught up in the explosion. Some were killed instantly, others died as a result of the roof of the waiting room collapsing on to the victims. There were 85 deaths and more than 200 other people were wounded.
The bomb was clearly placed to cause mass casualties. It was the first Saturday in the traditional
August holiday period, one of the busiest days of the year for rail travel, and the explosive-laden suitcase was left in a room with air conditioning, then still relatively rare in Italy. On a hot day, the room was naturally full of people.
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The station clock is now permanently set at the exact time
the bomb exploded on that fateful Saturday morning |
The attack was the deadliest of several during a bleak period of 10-12 years in Italian history that became known as the
Years of Lead, when the ideological struggle between the left and right in Italian politics was at its height.
It began with the killing of a Milan policeman in a far-left demonstration in November 1969 followed a few weeks later by a number of bomb attacks in Rome and Milan, the biggest of which killed 17 people in a bank in
Piazza Fontana, not far from the Milan cathedral.
There were several more bombings in the years that followed and countless assassinations of policemen, military personnel, government officials and other prominent public figures, the most high profile of which was the kidnap and murder of former prime minister
Aldo Moro in 1978. In all, it has been calculated that the Years of Lead claimed the lives of 428 people.
Although the killings continued after the Bologna Massacre, they happened with much less frequency after 1980 than in the three years leading up to the bombing, which has led some commentators to regard the August 2 attack as effectively bringing to an end the darkest period in Italian history since
Fascism.
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The tangled remains of the waiting
room roof after the blast |
As is almost always the case in Italy, the process of identifying the perpetrators and bringing justice was a long and torturous process.
Although the
Ansa news agency received a call within minutes of the bomb going off, purporting to claim responsibility on behalf of a right-wing terrorist group known as
Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari (Armed Revolutionary Corps), it was seven years before anyone was brought to trial and 10 more years before a series of trials, appeals, acquittals and retrials finally resulted in the confirmed conviction for murder of two NAR members,
Valerio Fioravanti and
Francesca Mambro.
Even now, conspiracy theories still persist over who else might have been involved with the planning and execution of the massacre.
In an era when the Italian Communists were as close to winning power, or a share of power, in the government of the country as they have been at any stage in their history, most of the outrages carried out during the Years of Lead were attributed either to extreme left-wing groups such as the
Red Brigades and
Prima Linea or to far-right organisations such as
Ordine Nuovo, Terza Posizione and
NAR.
The attack in Bologna was seen as symbolic because it targeted a city with a history of of left-wing politics along with a strong civic culture and a tradition of supporting the Partisans and rejecting Fascism.
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Valerio Fioravanti, pictured in police custody, was one of two
terrorists eventually jailed for carrying out the attack |
But many commentators have theorised that behind the NAR, darker forces many have been at work, possibly involving the Italian government and its secret services via the secret movement known as
Operation Gladio, or even the subversive Masonic organisation labelled
Propaganda Due, of which countless civil servants, military personnel, policemen and politicians were secretly members.
It was even suggested that the Israeli secret services might have supported the attack to punish Italy for a perceived sympathetic stance towards the Palestine Liberation Organisation.
The finger of suspicion was pointed at Gladio because of revelations years after the bombing that this was an organisation, in effect a shadow army, that had been put in place at the end of the Second World War, with the tacit backing of the United States, to act initially as a force primed to react to any invasion by forces from the Eastern Bloc, which Italy bordered, but later to prevent, by any means, the Italian Communist Party from forming a government, which it was feared would turn Italy into a de facto Soviet satellite.
None of these theories was ever proven, although three figures connected with Italy’s military intelligence service SISMI, along with P2 grand master
Licio Gelli, were convicted during the course of the trials of supplying false information likely to mislead the investigation.
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The memorial at Bologna station to the
victims of the 1980 bombing |
Travel tip:
Memorial services at which to remember the 85 victims of the Bologna Massacre are held each year, with a march and a concert in Piazza Maggiore
, right at the centre of the city. There is a
plaque carrying the names of all the victims, who ranged from three years old to 86, while the clock inside the station has been stopped at 10.25am as a mark of respect for those killed. The reconstructed wall to which the plaque is attached has a jagged-edged gap left in it.
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| The beautiful Piazza Maggiore in Bologna |
Travel tip:
The history of
Bologna, one of Italy's most historic cities, can be traced back to 1,000BC or possibly earlier, with a settlement that was developed into an urban area by the Etruscans, the Celts and the Romans. The University of Bologna, the oldest in the world, was founded in 1088. Bologna's city centre, which has undergone substantial restoration since the 1970s, is one of the largest and best preserved historical centres in Italy, characterised by 38km (24 miles) of walkways protected by porticoes. At the heart of the city is the beautiful Piazza Maggiore, dominated by the Gothic Basilica of San Petronio, which at 132m long, 66m wide and with a facade that touches 51m at its tallest, is the 10th largest church in the world and the largest built in brick.
More reading:
December 12, 1969: The Piazza Fontana bombing
How magistrate Felice Casson revealed the existence of Operation Gladio
The kidnapping of ex-prime minister Aldo Moro
Also on this day:
1854: The birth of author Francis Marion Crawford
1945: The death of opera composer Pietro Mascagni
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