Caserma Ermanno Carlotto

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Ermanno Carlotto Barracks is a historic Italian military base in Tianjin’s former Italian concession. It was named for Lt. Ermanno Carlotto, who died protecting Tientsin during the Boxer Rebellion and earned Italy’s Gold Medal of Military Valor. Built in 1919 as a wooden shelter, it was later expanded and housed about 600 men from the San Marco Regiment; it was inaugurated in 1928 by Italy’s representative in China, Vittorio Cerruti, and was visited unofficially by the ex-emperor Puyi in 1933. In September 1943, during the Battle of the Italian Concessions in the Japanese-Italian War, the barracks resisted the Japanese and served as a refuge; Japan occupied it on September 10, 1943. In 1944 the Italian Social Republic handed the concession and barracks to Wang Jingwei’s regime. After World War II, U.S. Marines were stationed there. In 1947 the concession was handed to the Republic of China, and in 1949 control passed to the People’s Republic of China. Today a division of the People’s Armed Police uses part of the site, which is protected as a national historic site by the PRC.