December 23, 1944, remains one of the most tragic dates in the history of Curtatone. That afternoon, the Palazzo dei Vetri, then a bishop’s residence and today known as Casa del Sole, was struck by an Allied bomb. The building was housing infants from the “Soncini” Institute for Infants in Mantua, transferred there to escape the city’s bombings, along with a young nun who assisted them.
Despite being moved to a place considered safe, fate decreed that the tragedy would unfold there: eleven children, all under the age of three, and Sister Maria Evelina Giulio, aged 24, lost their lives under the rubble. Other children were miraculously rescued alive thanks to the immediate intervention of local volunteers, firefighters from Mantua, the bishop at the time Monsignor Menna, and numerous other local and provincial authorities.