The first recipient was
Domenico Millelire of the
Royal Sardinian Navy on 6 April 1793 and the latest recipient was in 2014 Chief Corporal-Major
Andrea Adorno of the
4th Alpini Paratroopers Regiment for combat operations in
Bala Murghab,
Afghanistan in 2010.
Individuals •
Andrea Adorno •
Cesare Airaghi •
Abele Ambrosini •
Francesco Azzi •
Irma Bandiera •
Francesco Baracca •
Cesare Battisti •
Giuseppe Baudoin •
Emanuele Beraudo di Pralormo •
Annibale Bergonzoli •
Edoardo Bianchini •
Carmelo Borg Pisani •
Junio Valerio Borghese •
Carlo Emanuele Buscaglia •
Giuseppe Caimi •
Nicola Calipari •
Inigo Campioni •
Carla Capponi •
Sebastiano Castagna •
Salvo D'Acquisto •
Francesco De Rosa •
Furio Niclot Doglio •
Luigi Durand de la Penne •
Emilio Faà di Bruno •
Carlo Fecia di Cossato •
Fabio Filzi •
Giovanni Fornasini •
Giuseppe Galliano (twice awarded) •
Joaquín García Morato •
Maurizio Giglio •
Luigi Giorgi (twice awarded) •
Luigi Gorrini •
Giuliano Gozi •
Amedeo Guillet •
Filippo Illuminato •
Trentino La Barba •
Antonio Locatelli (thrice awarded) •
Orlando Lorenzini •
Franco Martelli •
Giulio Martinat •
Luigi Mascherpa •
Umberto Masotto •
Corrado Mazzoni •
Domenico Millelire •
Tito Minniti •
Federico Tommaso Paolini •
Luigi Arbib Pascucci •
Pietro Pedranzini •
Sandro Pertini •
Luigi Reverberi •
Luigi Rizzo (twice awarded) •
Giovanni Romero •
Fulco Ruffo di Calabria •
Teseo Tesei •
Virginia Tonelli •
Enrico Toti •
Leandro Verì •
Luigi Viviani Foreigners decorated •
Charles Yorke, 4th Earl of Hardwicke (Great Britain, 1849) •
Wilhelm I (Prussia, 1866) • (France, 1914) •
Roland Morillot (France, 1915) •
Nicholas II (Russia 1916) • (USA, 1918) •
Antonio Cicirello (Peru, 1936) •
John von Thun und Hohenstein (Austria, 1938) •
Joaquín García Morato (Spain, 1939) • (Albania, 1940) •
Unatù Endisciau (Ethiopia, 1941) • (Eritrea, 1941) •
Hans-Joachim Marseille (Germany, 1942) •
Joachim Müncheberg (Germany, 1943) •
Pore Mosulishvili (Soviet Union, 1944) •
Daniil Varfolomeevič Avdeev (Soviet Union, 1944) • (Soviet Union, 1944) • (France, 1945)
Military units The first military unit awarded a Gold Medal was the
Regiment "Dragoni di Sua Maestà" on 21 April 1796 for the unit's conduct during the
Battle of Mondovì. Although at the time the Medal was exclusively awarded for personal bravery, King
Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia ordered the regiment's
standard to be decorated with two medals for saving his army from
Napoleon's attack. Until 1859, when the rules for awarding the Gold Medal were expanded to include cities and military units, only the
Brigade "Cuneo" was awarded a Special Gold Medal of Military Valor by King
Charles Felix of Sardinia for suppressing the
Revolt of 1821. The first unit to be awarded the Gold Medal after 1859 was the
French Imperial 3rd
Zouaves Regiment for its conduct in the
Battle of Palestro. The latest unit awarded the Gold Medal was the
Jewish Brigade in 2017 for the brigade's service during the
Italian Campaign of
World War II. The following list contains only the military units, which were awarded the Gold Medal of Military Valor twice. In total 112 gold medals were awarded to units of the Italian army: 105 to regiments and 7 to battalions. •
Regiment "Dragoni di Sua Maestà" (1796
Battle of Mondovì, the only cavalry unit to be awarded twice) •
1st Regiment "Granatieri di Sardegna" (1860
Siege of Gaeta, 1917
Tenth Battle of the Isonzo) •
5th Infantry Regiment "Aosta" (1859
Battle of San Martino, 1917-18 Italian Front) •
6th Infantry Regiment "Aosta" (1859
Battle of San Martino, 1917-18 Italian Front) •
9th Infantry Regiment "Regina" (1859
Battle of Palestro, 1915-16 Italian Front) • 10th Infantry Regiment "Regina" (1860
Battle of Castelfidardo, 1915-16 Italian Front) •
13th Infantry Regiment "Pinerolo" (1915-18 Italian Front, 1941
Greco-Italian War) •
47th Infantry Regiment "Ferrara" (1915-17 Italian Front, 1940-41 Greco-Italian War) •
48th Infantry Regiment "Ferrara" (1915-17 Italian Front, 1940-41 Greco-Italian War) •
80th Infantry Regiment "Roma" (1941–42, 1942-43
Eastern Front) •
84th Infantry Regiment "Venezia" (1911
Italo-Turkish War, 1943
Resistance to German forces in Yugoslavia) •
151st Infantry Regiment "Sassari" (1915–16, 1918 Italian Front) •
152nd Infantry Regiment "Sassari" (1915–16, 1918 Italian Front) •
3rd Bersaglieri Regiment (1941–42, 1942 Eastern Front; the unit is also the custodian of the medal awarded to the III Bersaglieri Cyclists Battalion in 1915–18 on the Italian Front) •
6th Bersaglieri Regiment (1942, 1942-43 Eastern Front) •
8th Bersaglieri Regiment (1941-42
Western Desert Campaign, 1943
Tunisian Campaign) •
5th Alpini Regiment (1940-41 Greco-Italian War, 1942-43 Eastern Front) •
8th Alpini Regiment (1940-41 Greco-Italian War, 1942-43 Eastern Front) •
9th Alpini Regiment (1940-41 Greco-Italian War, 1942-43 Eastern Front) •
3rd Alpine Artillery Regiment (1940-41 Greco-Italian War, 1942-43 Eastern Front, the only artillery unit to be awarded twice) The
4th Alpini Regiment currently also displays two Gold Medals of Military Valor on its flag, however the two medals were awarded to the regiment's
Alpini Battalion "Aosta", and the
Alpine Skiers Battalion "Monte Cervino".
Locations The first geographic entity to be awarded a Gold Medal of Military Valor was the city of
Vicenza in 1866 for its
five days long resistance to
Austrian assaults during the
First Italian War of Independence. Vicenza is also the only city to be awarded the medal twice: the second time for its participation in the
Italian resistance movement during
World War II. The latest city to be awarded was
Varzi for the creation and defence of the
Partisan Republic of
Alto Tortonese between September and December 1944. Examples: •
Region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia •
Province of Alessandria •
Province of Asti •
Province of Pordenone •
Ascoli Piceno •
Bassano del Grappa •
Lanciano •
Marzabotto •
Milan •
Modena •
Naples for the
Four days of Naples in 1943 •
Parma •
Varzi •
Vicenza A full list of regions, provinces and cities, which were awarded for their bravery can be found at
:it:Città decorate al valor militare per la guerra di liberazione.
University of Padua The
University of Padua is the only educational institution which was awarded a Gold Medal of Military Valor. The university received it on 2 November 1945 for its furious
resistance to German occupation in 1943–1945. ==See also==