Farnocchia is a hilltop hamlet in the municipality of Stazzema, situated in a panoramic position on the slopes of the Apuan Alps. Following the armistice with the Anglo-American forces on 8 September 1943, the first groups of patriots in the Alta Versilia area began to organise, determined to resist the German occupation and the collaborationist Italian Social Republic.

Two of the most active partisans, Gino Lombardi and Piero Consani, formed the first partisan group in Versilia in February 1944 at Porta di Farnocchia, called the ‘Cacciatori delle Apuane’ (Hunters of the Apuan Alps). A plaque placed there on 28 September 1997 commemorates this event. Despite their small numbers and limited armament, the group carried out acts of sabotage and raids against Republican forces, who responded with mass reprisals.

Lombardi was killed by the Republican National Guard in a shootout at Sarzana on 21 April 1944, while trying to contact the local Resistance. Consani was captured during the same action and later executed on 4 May 1944. Ottorino Balestri was with them and became one of the main partisan leaders in Versilia and commander of the ‘Ottorino’ formation, also known as ‘Balestri’ or ‘Gino Lombardi’. 

The destruction of Farnocchia took place within the series of operations that also included the Sant’Anna di Stazzema massacre. On 31 July 1944, a German patrol arrived in the village with orders to evacuate it immediately. In the following days, the second company of the ‘Gino Lombardi’ formation, stationed locally, heavily attacked the German forces, causing some casualties. On 8 August, German troops returned to Farnocchia, first targeting the partisans, then setting the village on fire and destroying it completely. 

On that day, the partisan Cristina Ardimanni (or Ardemanni) was killed. On 8 August 1995, on the initiative of the National Association of Italian Partisans (ANPI), the Municipality of Stazzema, and the Committee for the Honours to the Martyrs of Sant’Anna di Stazzema, a plaque was placed in the cemetery of Farnocchia, on the wall of the small ossuary chapel, in memory of Cristina and another partisan Luigi Mulargia. 

Additionally, on 31 March 1996, a plaque was installed in the village in memory of Bruno Antenucci, partisan and former Mayor of Stazzema.