The via dei Georgofili bombing (
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
: ''Strage di via dei Georgofili'') was a
terrorist
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
attack carried out by the
Sicilian Mafia
The Sicilian Mafia, also simply known as the Mafia and frequently referred to as Cosa nostra (, ; "our thing") by its members, is an Italian Mafia-terrorist-type organized crime syndicate and criminal society originating in the region of Sicily ...
in the very early morning on 27 May 1993 outside the
Uffizi
The Uffizi Gallery (; it, Galleria degli Uffizi, italic=no, ) is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums ...
in
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...
,
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
.
The via dei Georgofili bombing was carried out with a
Fiat Fiorino packed full of explosives, parked near the
Torre dei Pulci, between the
Uffizi
The Uffizi Gallery (; it, Galleria degli Uffizi, italic=no, ) is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums ...
museum and the
Arno River
The Arno is a river in the Tuscany region of Italy. It is the most important river of central Italy after the Tiber.
Source and route
The river originates on Monte Falterona in the Casentino area of the Apennines, and initially takes a so ...
. The edifice was the seat of the
Accademia dei Georgofili
The Accademia dei Georgofili (Academy of Georgofili) is an educational institution in Florence, Italy. It was established in 1753. The academy has been a historic institution for over 250 years, and is best known for promoting, amongst scholars ...
. The large explosion caused the death of five people: Angela Fiume (36 years old), employee and caretaker of the Accademia; her husband Fabrizio Nencioni (39 years old), policeman; their daughters Caterina Nencioni (50 days old); and Nadia Nencioni (nine years old); and Dario Capolicchio (22 years old), a junior student at the
architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...
class at
the university. Forty-eight other people were injured by the blast. The tower and other buildings were destroyed and others damaged, including the
Uffizi
The Uffizi Gallery (; it, Galleria degli Uffizi, italic=no, ) is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums ...
Gallery, where three paintings were heavily damaged or destroyed, including ''
Adoration of the Shepherds'' (1620) by
Gerard van Honthorst
Gerard van Honthorst (Dutch: ''Gerrit van Honthorst''; 4 November 1592 – 27 April 1656) was a Dutch Golden Age painter who became known for his depiction of artificially lit scenes, eventually receiving the nickname ''Gherardo delle Notti ...
(later partially recovered).
After
Corleonesi Mafia clan
The Corleonesi Mafia clan was a faction within the Corleone family of the Sicilian Mafia, formed in the 1970s. Notable leaders included Luciano Leggio, Salvatore Riina, Bernardo Provenzano, and Leoluca Bagarella.
Corleonesi affiliates were not ...
boss
Salvatore Riina
Salvatore Riina (; 16 November 1930 – 17 November 2017), called (, Totò being the diminutive of Salvatore), was an Italian mobster and chief of the Sicilian Mafia, known for a ruthless murder campaign that reached a peak in the early 1990 ...
was captured in January 1993, the mafia began a campaign of bombing Italian cultural heritage sites. Numerous terror attacks, including this one, were ordered as warning to its members to not turn
state's witness, but also in response for the Italian state overruling of the
Article 41-bis prison regime
In Italian law, Article 41-bis of the Prison Administration Act, also known as carcere duro ("hard prison regime"), is a provision that allows the Minister of Justice or the Minister of the Interior to suspend certain prison regulations. Currently ...
.
[The Olive Tree of Peace: The massacre in via dei Georgofili]
, The Florentine, 24 May 2012)
In June 1998,
pentito
''Pentito'' (; lit. "repentant"; plural: ''pentiti'') is used colloquially to designate collaborators of justice in Italian criminal procedure terminology who were formerly part of criminal organizations and decided to collaborate with a public ...
Gaspare Spatuzza received a life sentence in relation to the bombing.
[Cronologia Centro Siciliano di Documentazione "Giuseppe Impastato"]
/ref>
''La Repubblica'', 15 October 2008.
In 2000, Riina, Giuseppe Graviano
Giuseppe Graviano (; September 30, 1963) is an Italian mafioso from the Brancaccio quarter in Palermo. He also was one the men of the death squad that murdered Salvatore Contorno's relatives. He is currently serving several life sentences. He an ...
, Leoluca Bagarella and Bernardo Provenzano were sentenced to life imprisonment for ordering the massacre.
References
{{coord missing, Italy
1993 murders in Italy
20th century in Florence
20th-century mass murder in Italy
Attacks on buildings and structures in 1993
Attacks on buildings and structures in Italy
Car and truck bombings in Italy
Crime in Tuscany
History of the Sicilian Mafia
Improvised explosive device bombings in 1993
Mass murder in 1993
Massacres in Italy
May 1993 crimes
May 1993 events in Europe
Organized crime events in Italy
Terrorist incidents in Italy in 1993
Building bombings in Europe
Events in Florence