Hundreds of long-hidden photographs have gone on display in Edinburgh, revealing life in rural Italy during the Second World War.

FERNANDA: LE FOTO RITROVATE – Undiscovered Photos of Italian Rural Life 1930-1950 has just opened at the Italian Institute of Culture on runs until 1 October.

Dating from the 1930s to the 1950s, the photographs were discovered by filmmaker Giordano Viozzi after the death of his aunt, Fernanda Millevolte, with the original negatives having spent years in a drawer.

The photographer and many of those pictured remain unknown, but the collection offers a rare glimpse into life among contadini – impoverished sharecroppers from southern Le Marche.

Stefano De Angelis, director of the Italian Institute of Culture in Edinburgh, said the photographs offered an opportunity to revisit a period of history that had become part of collective memory.

He said the collection remained closely connected to the people and place where it was created, while offering lessons about community and resilience.

Rather than appearing as background figures in rural landscapes, the men, women and children are placed at the centre of the images.

Their lives also connect to a largely forgotten chapter of the Second World War, when thousands of Allied prisoners escaped from Italian PoW camps following the country’s 1943 armistice.

Around 50,000 prisoners escaped, with about 25,000 remaining at large and seeking refuge among local communities.

For some farming families, helping the escapees meant hiding them from Nazi and Fascist forces while sharing what little food and shelter they had.

The exhibition is linked to the Casa della Memoria Association in Servigliano, which operates a museum and educational centre at the former PG59 prisoner-of-war camp.

The site has since been designated an Italian national monument and attracts visitors researching relatives who were imprisoned there, alongside academic researchers.

Former PoW escapee Keith Killby founded the Monte San Martino Trust in 1989 to recognise the help he received from Italian families after escaping from PG59.

The trust now supports educational bursaries for young Italians and research into the experiences of Allied prisoners and the communities that sheltered them.

Entry to the exhibition is free, but booking is required. Tickets here.

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