Open City

The term of Ville Ouvert E gets along in a state of Guerre of a city declared returned without combat in order to save it ruin, from an explicit or tacit agreement between the belligerents.

The question arises when the city is of interest historical or cultural, or taking into account the number of civilians present among the population.

A condition plays in the balance: the city should not present an strategic interest in the conflict in progress; its release should not play in its final payment.

With the current of the hâvre represented by a famous city saved by the bombs, in general the refugees of the area tributary in an open city.

Some open cities

Among the cities declared open during the Second world war appeared: Rome, Chieti (in the Abruzzi), Florence, Belgrade. The statute of open city ensures its safeguard to him: by contrast, the surroundings of Cologne, after the bombardment strategic at the time of advanced Allies on other side of the Rhine, were moreover one stake of engagements: with leaving the war the Rhenish city was ruined, it remained then hardly than the Dom upright.

The aspects geostrategic sometimes only play: Manila was abandoned in 1942 by the American, cut its backs, and declared army open city. Y to hold a garrison did not represent any more a direction after Pearl Harbor, taking into account the advanced of the armies of the Empire of the Rising sun.

The town of Paris was it also briefly at the time of the rout, the French government being folded up in Bordeaux and leaving the capital to the civil authorities of the civil defense without hope to ensure a line of defense (the German white plan, successor of the Plan yellow, was quite advanced at this time).

Athens was declared city opened by the German authorities on October 11th 1944.

A relative statute of protection

The statute conferred on the open city is not inviolable, insofar as many cities declared open were nevertheless the object of bombardments. Theoretically, the city corresponding more to the definition should be Rome lasting the second world war, because of presence of the Vatican, which allocated with the Italian capital the statute of Holy City. In spite of that, it was touched by a hard bombardment on July 19th, 1943.

In the same way, although the Germans recognized Belgrade opened city, they bombarded it in April 1941 within the framework of the countryside of Balkans.

One can consider that except this fact the city was saved by the combat, which were held in a decisive way in the area in the ruins of the monastery of Assembles Casino. Going up the Italic boot, the Allies also negotiated with the German army and the local authorities in order to also save the town of Florence; it would have been sacrilege for the Italian architectural heritage to be likely to see touched the Big shot Vecchio, symbol of the Rebirth if it is not the very whole city.

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