War stories, testimony from the INA buildings

24 May 2019

Ina Assitalia Historical Archive Stories

During World War II, several INA buildings and properties were damaged, some seriously and others less so: bombardments, attacks, battles and skirmishes are alive in the documents and photographs of the War Damages subfonds, a recently reorganised section inserted into the larger Historical Real Estate Fonds.
In addition to the images illustrating the devastating effects of war, the damage surveys are also quite interesting, reporting precise information concerning the war and details of the event that damaged the building, and therefore the city, into a greater historical context.
The documents constitute a comprehensive guide composed of general paperwork related to single properties, or in some cases cumulative documents from several buildings damaged within the same city, as in the cases of Bolzano or Milan. After having been thoroughly checked and associated to the properties of pertinence, the over 200 documents were inserted into the Historical Real Estate Fonds, which collects all documentation relative to the real estate holdings of the Istituto Nazionale delle Assicurazioni.
The War Damages documents, although created and managed by the INA technical office, were only transferred with a sketchy list of contents to the Historical Archive, before and separately from the documentation regarding INA’s real estate. They were kept together with other various documents, and after having been stored in unsuitable locations for a long period, they underwent a restoration process in 2009.