The Casa della Resistenza, designed by the architect and partisan Cesare Mercandino and inaugurated in 1996, has its origins in the Fondotoce massacre of June 20, 1944, when forty-three partisans, who had been arrested in the days leading up to the fact, during the sweep operations in the Val Grande, were shot at this location, precisely where the 'Park of Memory and Peace' is now located.
From June 12 to 22, 1944, an operation was carried out by 4,200 German soldiers and fascists within the Val Grande. This operation, known by the code name Köln, was led by Lieutenant Colonel Ernst Weis of the SS-Pol.Rgt.15, based at Villa Caramora in Intra.
In the afternoon of June 20, 1944, the forty-three partisans were executed in Fondotoce, near the canal that connects Lake Maggiore with Lake Mergozzo. This is where the large monumental wall now stands, engraved with the names of the 1,300 resistance fighters who fell in the provinces of Novara and Verbano Cusio Ossola.
After being subjected to torture, they were paraded in a procession through Intra and other lakeside towns until they reached Fondotoce. Initially, there were forty-six partisans in the procession, but three of them, who were already allied soldiers, were spared at the last moment, while one of the executed partisans managed to save himself.
Carlo Suzzi, that was his name, miraculously survived and managed to escape with the help of local people, later returning to the Valdossola formation under the battle name "the Quarantatré" (Forty-Three).
The execution of the partisans may have been a revenge for the more than forty fascists from the Fondotoce garrison who were captured – but not killed though- on May 30 by a squad from 'Valdossola', commanded by Mario Muneghina.
Today, the Casa della Resistenza serves as a center for historical documentation and research, it houses and preserves the Park of Memory and Peace and stands as a symbol of the Resistance throughout the territory of the former province of Novara, which, at the time, also included the area of present-day Verbano Cusio Ossola.