The Pilotta Monumental Complex, in collaboration with ISREC Parma, is participating in the series of initiatives promoted to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Giuseppe Micheli , with a meeting dedicated to Giuseppe Micheli and Felice Corini, an engineer and politician originally from Parma.
The correspondence and letters of these important protagonists of national and local history are today preserved in the Micheli Archive of the Palatina Library.
Giuseppe Micheli has been a protagonist, since he was young, in the history of Parma, giving voice, in particular, to the people of the Apennine valleys. A member of parliament for six legislatures, in 1919 he joined Luigi Sturzo’s Partito Popolare to which he was linked by feelings of mutual political esteem and personal friendship. He was Minister of the Kingdom of Italy three times before fascism; after 1943 he was chosen by the Allies as the referent of the CLN of Parma which had been established in his office. Among the founders of De Gasperi’s Christian Democracy who recognized his value and authority, he was elected member of the Constituent Assembly and, later, appointed Senator, he was again Minister in the Italian Republic. He characterized his commitment with the will to give life to the Emiliano Lunense Region which was approved, initially, also by the Constituent Commission. He was deeply affected by the death of his son Michele, captain of the Tridentina, missing in Russia, and for this reason he created the “Family Alliance for the missing and prisoners in Russia”. He was also the National President of the Catholic University Students (Fuci), of the National Confederation of Professionals and Artists, Commissioner of the National Union of Notaries and co-founder of the ANCI
Giuseppe Micheli was a protagonist in the catastrophic earthquake that razed Messina and Reggio Calabria in 1908, rushing among the first to bring relief and creating, thanks also to the significant contribution of the Cassa di Risparmio di Parma, a temporary village of shacks later called “Michelopoli”. He is still remembered today in Messina with an important square. The Municipality of Messina also joined the Parma commemorative Committee.
Micheli, in particular, left a deep mark on the history of Parma for his commitment in the valleys of the Apennines, in the Rural Banks, in the Deputation for National History, in the CAI, in the Association La Giovane Montagna with which he founded the periodical of the same name dedicated to local life and the problems of the country.