Campegine: home of the Cervi brothers in the Emilian plain

In the flat farming country north-west of Reggio Emilia lies the small town of Campegine, a quiet place of around 5,400 people whose name is bound up with one of the most moving stories of the Italian Resistance. It was here that the seven Cervi brothers were born and are buried.

The seven Cervi brothers

The Cervi were a large family of farmers, fervent opponents of fascism, whose seven sons were arrested and shot together at Reggio Emilia in December 1943. They became a national symbol of peasant courage and of resistance to tyranny, and they rest today in the cemetery of Campegine, alongside their parents. Just over the boundary in neighbouring Gattatico, the family farmhouse is now the Cervi Museum, which tells their story and keeps the tractor, tools and belongings of this remarkable family.

The town and its surroundings

Campegine itself is a typical town of the central Po plain, surrounded by fields and farmsteads, with a long rural history and a strong tradition of cooperation and civic memory. It makes a thoughtful stop for anyone interested in 20th-century history.

Getting there

Campegine is about twelve kilometres north-west of Reggio Emilia and roughly seventy kilometres north-west of Bologna, easily reached from the Via Emilia and the motorway network of the region.