Nicola Guerrazzi

Nicola Guerrazzi (16 May 1836 – 10 July 1912) was an Italian soldier and patriot who fought with Giuseppe Garibaldi for the Unification of Italy.

Biography Born in Palaia to Anton Maria Guerrazzi and Maria Campinotti, Guerrazzi completed his studies in Florence, where at the age of sixteen he received a silver medal for civil valor from the Florentine municipality for saving the lives of a woman and a child following an accident along the Arno riverbanks. Drawn to liberal and democratic positions, he was arrested and taken to the Prison of Bargello in 1855, for participating in a demonstration. After his release, he moved to Lucca and then to Genoa, but had to leave this city as well for participating in republican initiatives. Moving to Marseille, he came into contact with Felice Orsini with the intention of joining him in Paris, but arrived shortly after the attempted assassination of Napoleon III and was forced to flee to Barcelona. He fought in Sicily with Nicotera's expedition and was promoted to the rank of captain for acts of valor after the Battle of the Volturno.

Guerrazzi maintained deeply rooted anti-clerical positions throughout his life, hoping until the end of his days for the realization of a "universal Republic". He died in Follonica on 10 July 1912. As a prominent Freemason, the Masonic lodge of Massa Marittima, founded in 1967 and located in Palazzo Malfatti, was named after him. Additionally, a square in Follonica bears his name.