Edizioni FrancoAngeli - Last issue of STORIA URBANA (132/2011)

Voices of an infant Italy. Monuments, toponyomy and celebrative designs in the construction of the cities of the Risorgimento

Thu, 15 Feb 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Gian Paolo Treccani
Many studies deal with urban transformations of Italian cities after the unification of the country. These studies, in general, investigate the quantitative aspects of these renovations, in relation to the dimensional expansion of the cities, the construction of new infrastructures such as roads, railways, harbours, and so on, and the erection of huge public works for social purposes. On the contrary there are less studies on urban and territorial transformations produced by that phenomenon usually known as "national identity construction". The essay traces the origin of this phenomenon and focuses on the issues which were behind the construction. By underlining specific features, the study defines a type of "geography" (made up of an unlimited numbers of celebrative monuments, symbolic places, tablets, toponyomy and itineraries inspired by patriotism, restorations of so-called "National Monument") where the national identity construction plan took place. These particular representations of national identity are today an unavoidable feature of Italian cities, and require a plan for their protection and enhancement.

Monument to "Le Cinque Giornate" of Milan

Thu, 15 Feb 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Amedeo Bellini
In 1879, a competition was held for the building of a monument in remembrance of "Le Cinque Giornate" of Milan: the armed insurrection which, for a short period in 1848, had freed the town from Austrian rule. The aim of the local government was to erect an architectural monument of social use, a gate or large arcade, near the customs building of Porta Vittoria (Victory Gate), which already bore that name, taken from the battle which had occurred nearby. In this way, the authorities could also to solve the town planning problem of access to the town along a main route which was under ex- pansion. The debate involving critics and administrators about the plans led to a first, and then second public competition, and offers a clear picture of the historic and symbolic interpretation of the architecture of the time, which was typical of contemporary Italian culture. Eventually, owing, above all, to the pressure of public opinion, the plan was given up in order to realize a large scale sculptural monument.

"Devesi parlare al popolo" ("we need to speak to the people", Toponyomy of the Risorgimento and commemorative headstones in Milan city-council debate,1859-1878

Thu, 15 Feb 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Lorenzo de Stefani
This essay deals with toponyomy as an instrument of national feeling consolidation after the annexation of Milan to the Kingdom of Sardinia, and later to the Italian State. We have considered the city-council debates on the evocative value of the roads dedicated to the principal figures of the Risorgimento and to outstanding men in the field of letters, arts and sciences, in particular referring to those born in Milan or residing there for some time, who had influenced its civil, artistic and literary life. This action of "memory building" links up with the necessity of rationalizing and modernizing the city that was to become the unified State "moral capital" (ratified by city and district legislation in 1865). This had to take place together with the concern to keep local memories alive, always however, in harmony with the action of nation building from the point of view of language and common memories. This ties in with the will to celebrate principal historic civic events by affixing plaques as a synthesis of a "native history compendium" to be offered for the edification of the people.

Genova: echi e tracce del Risorgimento e dell'Unità d'Italia

Thu, 15 Feb 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Stefano Francesco Musso
The essay underlines the deep and less clear relationships between the wide-ranging history of the Italian Risorgimento (as Genoa is meant to be - also thanks to some personalities such as Nino Bixio, Goffredo Mameli an Giuseppe Mazzini - a sort of "ideal Homeland") and some of the most physical traces which this history has left within the urban structure of the city. The author proposes a different reading of some experiences dealing with the transformation or the development of the city during the Risorgimento, with particular re- ference to the period in which the Reign of Italy was proclaimed: the Garibaldi Street, for example, was designed to connect - across the Fontane Marose Square - the sixteenth- century Aurea Street, residence of the ancient oligarchic class, to new city centre, organized around the De Ferrari Square. The new street was realized by demolishing, with a surgical precision, the surrounding medieval neighbourhood. On the contrary, the new urban junction, the Corvetto Square, with the two monuments representing Giuseppe Mazzini and Vittorio Emanuele II, is an emblematic example of the design of new celebratory spaces. The different reading of well-known experiences, which the author proposes, also concerns to the period after the unification of Italy (until the first years of the twentieth century). This event, in fact, had a great impact regarding to symbolic issues, but it had not equivalent, immediate consequences on the urban structure of the city which, on the contrary, experienced some diffuse and traumatic demolitions, mutilations and displacement of ancient monuments.

Memory and Memorials of the Risorgimento in Venice after annexation to Italy

Thu, 15 Feb 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Gianfranco Pertot
The most important episode of the Risorgimento in Venice was the experience of the Repubblica di San Marco (in 1848-49), which saw Daniele Manin, Nicolò Tomma- seo and other prominent figures of Venetian culture as its protagonists. After the annexation to Italy (1866), Venetians wanted to remember the heroes and the events of that first experience. Even in Venice, monuments to Garibaldi and to the King were built, but there was no widespread public works of celebration of the Risorgimento heroes, as happened, on the contrary, in many other Italian cities in the first decades after unification. Erected monuments (after many disputes, delays, and conflicts between institutions, committees, etc.) were few, as well as changes in toponyomy (wall affixed marble memorials were the most common celebrative works). The contradictory way by which Venice celebrated Italian Unità after 1866, is a symptom of many factors; the deep economic, social and identity crisis of the city; the difficult coexistence between the new moderate order imposed by the central government (and by the local government too); the memory of the heroic, but ill-fated, revolutionary experience of 1848- 49; and, finally, the still clear memory of political autonomy, which was lost in 1797.

Geographies of the Risorgimento. Celebratory monuments and urban transformations in Brescia, 1861-1895

Thu, 15 Feb 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Gian Paolo Treccani
After the annexation of Brescia to the Kingdom of Italy (1859), a succession of initiatives were carried out in the city, both addressed to commemorate the "Fathers of the Homeland" and the events which, in 1849, led to the rebellion of the city against Austrian domination, known as "The Ten Days". These initiatives activated a significant process of transformation of the historic city centre, and partially contributed to defining the esthetics of the modern city. This transformation took place with the definition of important celebrative settings, characterized by erecting monuments dedicated to the heroes of the Risorgimento (above all, Garibaldi) and by reorganizing the urban areas around these monuments; unveiling plaques; the restoration of "National historic buildings" and, in the end, with new toponyomy which, by cancelling the old names of streets and squares, symbolically re-founded the city. The leader of these transformations was Giuseppe Zanardelli, a liberal member of Parliament, Minister of Public Works, of Justice and then Prime Minister of the Kingdom, who was able to transmit, in these transformations, the political ideal of unity of the Nation but, above all, to insert this project of urban transformation into a wider program of modernization and progress of Brescia.

Turin, the Piazza Statuto

Thu, 15 Feb 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Filippo Morgantini
Noted especially for its political, financial and town-planning aspects, Turin’s Piazza Statuto still raises many unanswered questions on the cultural references adop- ted and the personalities involved in the refined architectural configuration of the uniform complex of buildings which characterize it. The new study highlights how, in the square built in 1864-1868, to celebrate the Statuto Albertino (the constitution granted by King Charles Albert), some interesting suggestions, aimed at proposing a national (Italian) architectural style, were by more spectacular and well known international classicism. The protagonists of the event were very valid technicians, though not endowed with any remarkable creativity, whose references came from Paris. In spite of the direct involvement of British funds in the intervention of Piazza Statuto, in Turin, as in the rest of Europe, French cultural influence was very strong. After the transfer of the capital city from Turin to Rome, the square, still unfinished, became an emblematic symbol of the modern industrial vocation of the city, which is well underlined by the insertion of the monument to the men who dug the Frejus Tunnel (1879). Nevertheless, literature underlines, even if in a partial and subjective way, how difficult it was to assign a symbolic purpose to that space.

Expectations and disillusionment in the Risorgimento’s celebrations (1861-1911-1961-2011)

Thu, 15 Feb 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Luciano Re
Design The essay outlines some events, projects and realizations in Turin on the occasion of the celebration of the Unity of Italy (1861: Turin first capital of Italy; 1911 the Fifties Exhibition; 1961: «Italia ‘61», the Centenary Exhibition; and the present 2011 Sesquicentennial). These events were celebrated with projects and concrete interventions which can be considered as «Pictures at an Exhibition». In the essay, the time between the different celebrations are proposed as «promenades» in which the city, but also the buildings erected on occasion of the previous celebrations, continually change.

Note on the restoration of the Savoy residences for the first centenary of the Unification of Italy (1961)

Thu, 15 Feb 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Maria Grazia Vinardi
Among the activities organized to celebrate the centenary of the Unification of Italy, Turin and Piedmont managed to access funding for the restoration of the State owned castles. This financing was particularly relevant as important building projects could be started which involved long conservation processes, and in some cases which have only been concluded recently. The merit of the leading figures of these interventions, the Supervisors, was to remove a cultural heritage of European significance from oblivion, largely unknown even to the Piedmontese people themselves.

Rome, Capital city of the Italian Kingdom: the changeover of convents into ministries

Thu, 15 Feb 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Silvia Crialesi
The use of Roman former convents as seats of ministries and government offices for the new capital of the Kingdom of Italy, formed part of a major plan of reuse of buildings belonging to religious institutes. These had been suppressed after the unification of Italy and was also influenced by an uncertain diplomatic and military situation. These changes are central events in the process of constituting laws to protect artistic estates in the new unitary state.

Da ducato pontificio a capoluogo di provincia: il Risorgimento a Benevento

Thu, 15 Feb 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Francesco Delizia
Garibaldi did not pass by Benevento. Nevertheless, the city had such an important role in Garibaldi’s conquest of Southern Italy that the "Hero of the two worlds" himself, acknowledged as the capital of the province. In the years which followed annexation to Italy, and the assignment of the role of the capital of the province, the main commitment of local authorities was to define the new territorial structure of the city, locked, until that moment, within the medieval city walls; a perimeter - which had also become the border of urban space and functions - that had been strengthened by the natural site of the city closed between two rivers. The main concern of local authorities, temporary Government at the beginning and moderate groups of old aristocracy and land owners later, was to define and consolidate the new territorial organization, in addition to controlling the hotbed of disorders which spread throughout in the province. In this situation, social issues, the big topic of 19th century urban planning and the needs of the city were left aside in favour of some un-programmed choices in public investments. In the scene of urban transformations, only a small number of monuments to celebrate the protagonists of the Risorgimento were erected.

Messina l'italianissima. Il volto della città post-risorgimentale (1847-1880)

Thu, 15 Feb 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Annunziata Maria Oteri
After the unification of Italy, due to the high number of victims and damage after the 1848 rebellion, Messina was named "Italianissima" and recognized as "benemerita - meritorious - of the Risorgimento". This intense participation in the Italian national cause, however, has not left evident traces in the urban re-organization of Messina, once part of the new Kingdom. Unlike in many other Italian cities, the early, ambitious projects of celebration of the heroes of the Risorgimento failed; rather, these projects were incorporated in the indolent process of urban growth due to the necessity, as in other places, of enlargement and redevelopment of the city. It is significant that, in Messina, the heroes of the Risorgimento were not celebrated within the urban fabric. Both before and after the 1908 earthquake, Vittorio Emanuele II, Garibaldi, Cavour, Mazzini were commemorated only in toponyomy, or in some modest busts placed in a remote corner of a public garden or within the main cemetery. The essay analyzes the reasons for this unfulfilled promise in urban growth. In particular, it studies the conditioning of the politicians, still connected to the old systems, and the insufficient authority of the liberal groups in opposition.

Irredentism and urban transformations: the case of Riva del Garda

Thu, 15 Feb 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Barbara Scala
Italy annexed the Trentino region only in 1918. This long wait of about fifty years, nourished in the people of the territory - who were Italian by tradition, but politically under Austrian government - a strong feeling of being "Italian", which defined a lively political and cultural mood. Irredentism, a political and cultural movement, developed, above all in Riva del Garda. With Irredentism, an élite group of intellectuals reclaimed their belonging, and that of the Region, to Italy. On the one hand, the ideas of Homeland, Nation, and Liberty spread rapidly; on the other hand, as a reaction to Austrian conservatism, great attention to progress, technological innovation and inventiveness became widespread. The free character of the Riva’s inhabitants, who, helped by the pleasant climate of the place where two geographical areas met (the Habsburg emperor and the Reign of Italy), invested in «the business of foreigners » and transformed the little town into the capital of mid-European tourism, thus preventing the isolation of Riva as a peripheral territory of the Habsburg emperor. Riva adapted itself to the needs of increasing tourism, an activity which turned out to be more and more significant for the local economy, yet it did not reject its Italian spirit. The essay outlines the significant political, economic and urban renewal of Riva, also characterized by important interventions in the urban structure of the town, due to a lively local milieu who, from the 1850s, encouraged klimathoterapie (a healthcare therapy favoured by the particular climatic conditions of the place).

Memories of the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy: bibliography and cultural activities

Thu, 15 Feb 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Lia Signorini
The bibliography of the 150TH anniversary of the Unification of Italy is quite large. An enormous quantity of cultural initiatives have been added to the publishing activity: historical itineraries, exhibitions and conferences, documented by proceedings, videos and pictures available on the web. Web sites have been highly considered and they represent enormous, easy to access, data banks. Unlike previous celebrations of the Fiftieth and Hundredth anniversaries, this anniversary pays particular attention to historical recalling. The purpose of this review consists of collecting and sharing the large, heterogeneous literary production, divided into different subjects. This retrospective collection reflects the interpretation of the unification process made by experts, by the Guarantors’ Committee of Celebrations, and also by common opinion, pointing out problems and open issues. The first section deals with the general contributions related to pre- and post- unification. A paragraph speaks about relevant figures in the Risorgimento. Then, the reader meets with contributions reporting particular issues, statistics, work and economy, and historical cartography. Luoghi della Memoria (Venues of memory) is quite special with its twofold physical and psychological dimension.

Abstracts

Thu, 15 Feb 2012 8:00:00 GMT