Antonio Giuriolo, a literature graduate, anti-fascist and intellectual, came from Arzignano (VI) where he was active in the local Italian anti-fascist resistance movement Giustizia e Libertà and where he was among the organisers of the Veneto Resistance after 8 September 1943. Due to a wound in one hand, he was hospitalised under a false name at the Putti orthopaedic centre in Bologna, where other partisans were being cared for. There he was persuaded to reorganise the Matteotti Montagna brigade, which had been formed in the spring of 1944, but was without a commander at the time. 

He assumed leadership of the formation in July 1944; the operational area was the Upper Reno Valley, on the border between Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany. In cooperation with the Modena Armando Division, the brigade took part in the liberation of numerous Apennine towns in September-October 1944, including Porretta Terme. Later, it was rearmed and equipped by the Allies, taking over a large section of the front. 

On 12 December 1944, partisans captured a German post in Corona, a hamlet in the town of Lizzano in Belvedere west of Monte Belvedere, but were counter-attacked by Nazi troops. Antonio Giuriolo, called Toni, while covering his retreating men, was hit by a burst of machine-gun fire. Partisans Pietro Galiani and Nino Venturi also perished that day. The brigade continued its war operations until April 1945 and recorded 181 recognised partisans of whom 24 died and 19 were wounded. 

The monument, erected at the behest of the local ANPI section and the town of Porretta Terme, was inaugurated on 15 December 1946 to commemorate Giuriolo and the fallen partisans. Two dates are engraved on the stone: 19/07/1944, when Giuriolo took command of the brigade (according to some sources it was 10 or 16 July), and 12/12/1944, the day of his death. The ceremony was attended by Giuriolo's family members, civil and military authorities, and representatives of neighbourhood parties.