Bogardo Buricchi

Bogardo Buricchi was born on 23 October 1920 in Carmignano di Prato, part of a religious family, although of poor financial condition. At the age of thirteen he entered the seminary in Pistoia, but left four years later without graduating and with a deep aversion to Church, although he remained a believer. After the death of his mother, thanks to the help of a parish priest, he obtained a secondary high school diploma in pedagogy and became an instructor at a boarding school in Florence. Naturally curious, he came into contact with the liveliest cultural environment: that of Carmignano. He wrote articles, poems and kept diaries.

With Italy's entry into the war, he developed a strong aversion to fascism. After 8 September 1943, he went into hiding, organised a patriotic action squad (PAS), of which his brother was also a member, and began sabotaging communications. He never espoused any political ideology, but remained an independent, albeit fascinated by Marxism.

In mid-February 1944, he called a strike by the Carmignano peasants, gathering around three hundred of them in the square to protest against the provision which increased the quota of wheat that each family had to put into storage. After the Podestà escape, the Florentine authorities sent the infamous Banda Carità to enforce the order and Buricchi's team, in order to avoid retaliation, set fire to and destroyed the municipal office of agricultural assessments with explosives on 2 March. He helped produce and distribute leaflets for the 4 March strike against the regime, which was followed by repression by the authorities with the arrest and deportation of 133 men to Germany.

On the night of 30 April, the team hoisted the red flag on the tower of the Campano di Carmignano, which waved throughout 1 May. On 11 June 1944, a train loaded with explosives from the town's Nobel factory was stopped on a dead railway track at Poggio alla Malva station. Although he had no approval for the action: the area partisan commissar was absent, Bogardo decided to act anyway. On the night of 10-11 June, the Sappists placed a time bomb on a wagon, but it exploded before its time. Some partisans died, including Bogardo. The explosion uncovered some roofs in the area and was felt as far as Prato, Florence and Pistoia.

After his death, Prato's most important partisan brigade was named after him, although he was not awarded the silver medal until 1972.