
Rome’s famous prison was originally built as a convent.
Its name, Regina Coeli, means “Queen of the Heavens”.
Living in Regina Coeli
In 1944, Marcella Monaco was twenty-six years old. She was a mother of two young children and married to Alfredo, a prison doctor at Regina Coeli. He was on call most nights and the family apartment was within the prison complex. Their door was a short distance from the main prison entrance at 28 Via della Lungara and their window overlooked the prison courtyard.
Most of the prison staff were unaware that Marcella and Alfredo were members of the socialist party and had joined a resistance group, the Matteotti group. They risked arrest because of this.
Marcella and Alfredo often hosted meetings of the Matteotti group at their apartment; it felt like a safe place because no-one would expect that in Regina Coeli! Sometimes, one or two of the group members spent the night at the apartment and Marcella would give them food. Alfredo had patients in the countryside who had little money but paid him with whatever they had, such as flour, eggs and meat, which supplemented the family’s rations.