Sciesopoli: it seems like the name of a fantastic and imaginary city. Instead, it is the name of a great alpine colony, founded by the leaders of Milanese fascism and inaugurated on 11 June 1933 in Selvino.
The name derives from “Tendopoli”, with which the fascist squadrists called their campsites during the summer. The idea came from Emilio Tonoli, a student at the Politecnico, who died during an assault on the socialist newspaper of “Avanti” on 4 August 1922, a year marked by numerous fascist violence. A few months before his death, Tonoli had proposed to the young comrades of the fascist group “Sciesa”, born in 1921 in the heart of Milan, the richest and most aristocratic, to spend the summer in a summer camp in Val Solda, a natural park near Lugano.
(Published in the journal QUADERNI DI ARCHIVIO BERGAMASCO, n. 8-9, years 2014-2015)
