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

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.

Keywords: Brescia - Celebratory monuments - Toponyomy - Urban transformations

Gian Paolo Treccani, Geografie risorgimentali. Allestimenti celebrativi e trasformazioni urbane a Brescia, 1861-1895 in "STORIA URBANA " 132/2011, pp 165-201, DOI: 10.3280/SU2011-132006