French Troops Loot Valeggio on Christmas Day, 200 Years Ago
Forget Christmas gifts. That was a raid. On the morning of Thursday, December 25th, 200 years ago, a day of terror began for the Valeggio community, which experienced the last looting of its history at the hands of French troops. This account is told by don Andrea Carpani, then a twelve-year-old altar server, in a book published in Verona by Antonelli’s press in 1843.
Description of the event and testimonies
Like in a film, the events stand out vividly from the very beginning, starting during the mass: “As he (the priest Domenico Guerra, ed.) raises his right hand to his forehead to make the sign of the Cross, a terrible cannon blast from the imminent castle suddenly sounds, then another strikes us, deafening us!”. From the hills of Monte Ogheri, the French fire toward the town, and chaos erupts in the church, even among the Austrian soldiers present, led by General Hohenzollern.
Same as Carpani himself flees and takes refuge at home in the arms of his parents on Via San Rocco, soldiers run through the streets wrapped in the smoke of cannons. Certainly, for Carpani, an involuntary chronicler, the arrival of the French marks the worst moment (“Last night oh misery! less than at the Devil’s House”), but the direct testimony is considered important by Cesare Farinelli, author of “History of Valeggio and its territory”.
Testimonies and historical details
“First of all, because it doesn’t happen often,” says Farinelli today, “and secondly because it allows us to relive those hours almost in real time, through the recounting of many facts and small episodes; for example, young women who sought to disfigure themselves with mud and soot to escape violence; the invasion of his house with the rescue of the little sister seized at the moment by a servant after the soldiers had violently taken her from the cradle in search of valuables; the act of charity by the archpriest who sheltered in the presbytery two prostitutes accompanying the French army, thereby securing their ‘intercession’ to prevent the looting of the church and presbytery”.
At dawn on St. Stephen’s Day, the armed troops left Valeggio, but only in the afternoon did the locals go out to recover pieces of meat from dead animals and bury the fallen.