Biagioni is a small village in the municipality of Alto Reno Terme. In June 1944 several SS units arrived here, as the area—through which the Bologna–Pistoia railway line runs—had become crucial for the construction of the Gothic Line, the German defensive line. These were soldiers belonging to the III Freiwilligen Battaillon Italien, which was composed of Italian soldiers and non-commissioned officers who had been captured after 8 September 1943 (Italy's surrender to the Allies), been imprisoned in Germany and had chosen to enlist in the German police.

The attacks carried out by the partisans along the Porrettana railway line prompted German command to regard the area as ‘infested with gangs’. On 4 July 1944, the SS command in Pracchia decided to carry out a round-up in search of partisans and draft dodgers. During this operation, two young men hiding in Biagioni were captured, and an SS officer was killed, presumably by his own comrades. This incident became the pretext for a massacre: in total, nine men were killed and the houses in Biagioni were devastated.

The monument was erected on the site of the massacre, the small square in front of the church in Biagioni. It is dedicated to the Tuscan-Emilian Resistance 1943 to 1945. It depicts a man in the act of removing the straitjacket imposed on him by the Nazi-Fascist dictatorship, with a sail behind him, a symbol of freedom and the aspiration for peace.

It was unveiled on 25 April 1974 in the presence of Benigno Zaccagnini, Vice-President of the Chamber of Deputies, Silvano Armaroli, President of the Regional Council of Emilia-Romagna, and Elio Gabbuggiani, President of the Regional Council of Tuscany. Next to it, attached to the monument, is a plaque commemorating the victims of the Biagioni massacre, commissioned by the local population after the war. The same list also includes the name of Augusto Paccagnini, killed by German forces on 16 September 1944 in Monteacuto delle Alpi (Lizzano in Belvedere).