The awards for Civil Valor are the honors the Italian Republic grants in order to "reward acts of exceptional courage that clearly manifest civic virtue and to recognize the recipients as worthy of public honor". Individual citizens can receive the award (including posthumously), and it can also be bestowed collectively on all members of a military department or all residents of a municipality, city, or province when they have knowingly exposed their life to manifest danger.
Historical background
On 30 April 1851, Victor Emmanuel II, King of Sardinia, established the Medal for Civil Valor for the first time. When the Kingdom of Italy was established in 1861 with him as its first king, the Medal for Civil Valor became an award of the new kingdom.
The Carnegie Foundation, based in the Palazzo del Viminale, home of the Ministry of the Interior, has been involved in awards for civil valor since the Scottish philanthropist Andrew Carnegie in a 17 June 1911 letter to the President of the Council of Ministers, Prime Minister of Italy Giovanni Giolitti, granted to the government of the Kingdom of Italy a fund of US$750,000 in shares of the Carnegie Steel Company, annual annuities of which had to be used to pay premiums to people who were in economic difficulty but who nonetheless had worked in the face of danger to save the lives of others. Carnegie also suggested that instead of money, medals could be awarded to people who were not in economic difficulty.
In the modern Italian Republic, the law of 2 January 1958, Number 13, governs the awarding of medals for civil valor.
Award criteria
The awards for civil valor can be made for specific acts, which include:
- Saving people exposed to imminent and grave danger;
- Preventing or diminishing the damage caused by a serious public or private disaster;
- Re-establishing public order where it has been gravely disturbed and maintaining the rule of law;
- Arresting or participating in the arrest of malefactors;
- Performing acts aimed at the progress of science or in general for the good of humanity;
- Keeping the name and prestige of the country high.
Types of awards
Depending on the circumstances of time and place in which the action was performed and on the effects achieved, four different types of award can be presented:
Gold Medal for Civil Valor
Silver Medal for Civil Valor
Bronze Medal for Civil Valor- Certificate of Public Merit for Civil Valor (award has no ribbon)
The certificate is awarded by the Minister of the Interior, while the three medals are awarded by the President of the Italian Republic on the recommendation of the Minister of the Interior.
Award procedure
The law provides (Article 7) that the granting of recognition normally will follow an examination of the courageous act by a committee composed of a prefect, a senator, a deputy, two members representing the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, a general of the Carabinieri, a representative of the Carnegie Foundation, and a member of the civil administration of the Ministry of the Interior. However, if "the character of the courageous act and the resonance that it has aroused in public opinion" are sufficient to attest to the propriety of the honor, the President of the Italian Republic can proceed with the recognition without the evaluation of the commission (Article 8).
Notable recipients
Individuals
Silver Medal for Civil Valor
- Felice Napoleone Canevaro (1838–1926), for humanitarian aid and contributions to public health while in command of the battleship Italia during a cholera epidemic in La Spezia in 1884.
Municipalities
Of particular significance are medals for civil valor the Italian Republic has awarded to cities, municipalities, and provinces in recognition of the acts of heroism credited to the entire community during war, natural disasters. or other tragedies at various times in Italy's national history.
Gold Medal for Civil Valor
Municipalities decorated for acts of self-denial during Italy's participation the Second World War (1940–1945)
- Acerra (awarded for collective heroism following a Nazi German massacre on 2 October 1943; 67 men and boys and 15 women and girls were killed, including 14 children, 48 elderly people, and 20 other adults)
- Ancona (awarded in 1960)
- Argenta (awarded in 1973)
- Avellino
- Benevento (awarded in 1961)
- Boves (awarded in 1963)
- Bucine (awarded in 1963)
- Castelforte (awarded in 2002)
- Civitella in Val di Chiana
- Foggia (awarded in 2007)
- Francavilla al Mare (awarded in 1959)
- Isernia (awarded in 1960)
- Marsala
- Matera (awarded in 2016)
- Messina (awarded in 1959)
- Ortona (awarded in 1959)
- Paternò (awarded in 1972)
- Rimini (awarded in 1961 in recognition of the 1944 Battle of Rimini)
- Santi Cosma e Damiano (awarded in 2002)
- Trapani (awarded in 1961)
Municipalities decorated for natural disasters
- Florence (awarded in 1968 following a 1966 flood)
- Legnago (awarded in 1883 following an 1882 flood)
- Verona (awarded in 1883 following an 1882 flood)
Municipalities decorated for other events
- Bologna (awarded in 1981 following the 1980 station massacre)
Silver Medal for Civil Valor
- Casteldelci (awarded in 2003 in recognition of the 1944 Fragheto massacre)
- Ceccano
- Cisterna di Latina
- Foligno
- Leonessa
- Stia
- Terni
- Tolentino
- Velletri
- Viterbo
Bronze Medal for Civil Valor
References
Notes
- Fonti normative sul sito istituzionale del Quirinale (Italian)
- treccani.it Gabriele, Mariano, "CANEVARO, Felice Napoleone," Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 18, 1975. (Italian)
- VISITA DEL PRESIDENTE CARLO AZEGLIO CIAMPI: 19-06-2000 Visita alla regione Marche. 19 – 21 giugno 2000 (Italian)
- Argenta – Sito del Quirinale (Italian)
- Benevento – Sito del Quirinale (Italian)
- Boves – Sito del Quirinale (Italian)
- Bucine – Sito del Quirinale (Italian)
- Castelforte – Sito del Quirinale (Italian)
- Comune di Civitella in Val di Chiana – Sito del Quirinale Archived 2013-09-05 at the Wayback Machine (Italian)
- Foggia – Sito del Quirinale (Italian)
- Francavilla al Mare – Sito del Quirinale (Italian)
- Isernia – Sito del Quirinale (Italian)
- Statuto Comunale Città di Marsala Archived 2012-08-26 at the Wayback Machine (Italian)
- Matera – Sito del Quirinale (Italian)
- Messina – Sito del Quirinale (Italian)
- Ortona – Sito del Quirinale (Italian)
- Paternò – Sito del Quirinale (Italian)
- Rimini – Sito del Quirinale (Italian)
- Gambetti, Nicola (20 June 2023). "Monumenti sopravvissuti: l'Arco d'Augusto" [Surviving monuments: The Arch of Augustus]. Rimini Sparita (in Italian). Retrieved 16 January 2024.
- Santi Cosma e Damiano – Sito del Quirinale (Italian)
- Trapani – Sito del Quirinale (Italian)
- Firenze – Sito del Quirinale (Italian)
- Legnago – Sito del Quirinale (Italian)
- Verona – Sito del Quirinale (Italian)
- Bologna – Sito del Quirinale (Italian)
- "7 aprile 1944 – 80 anni fa la strage di Fragheto" [7 April 1944 – 80 years ago, the Fragheto massacre]. Chiamami Città (in Italian). 6 April 2024. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
- "Conferimento di onorificenze al merito civile (GU Serie Generale n.72 del 26-03-2004)" [Awarding of honours for civil valour (GU General Series n.72 of 03-26-2004)]. Gazzetta Ufficiale (in Italian). 26 March 2024. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
- Amministrazione Comunale di Ceccano (Italian)
- Lapide medaglia d'argento al valor civile alla Città di Foligno – Guida Foligno Wiki (Italian)
- Lapide medaglia d'argento al valor civile alla Città di Foligno – Guida Foligno Wiki (Italian)
- Lapide Sito del Quirinale – Assegnazione onorificenza a Stia (Italian)
- Volume realizzato dalla Presidenza del Consiglio Comunale di Terni per i 60 anni di Consiglio Comunale (1946–2006) pp. 42–43. (Italian)
- Statuto della Città di Viterbo(Italian) Archived 2016-04-12 at the Wayback Machine
- Sito del Quirinale – Assegnazione onorificenza a Capracotta (Italian)
- Sito del Quirinale – Assegnazione onorificenza a Civitella del Tronto (Italian)
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