What is the Risorgimento, and what is its significance today?
The Risorgimento is considered by most historians to be the historical period between the Congress of Vienna in 1815 and the capture of Rome in 1870 and its subsequent declaration as the capital of the Kingdom in 1871.
After about 1500 years since the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Italy was once again united under the same State, the same flag.
But those who want to make people believe that it was only an "elitist" process, conceived at the table by a few intellectuals who imposed on other social classes the participation in the events that led to this result, are wrong.
The Unification of Italy also and above all took place under the impulse of the middle class that was forming and the entrepreneurial class that saw in a united country, with the elimination of customs barriers, linguistic differences, with a single currency, a gigantic economic opportunity. Writers, musicians, artists such as Alessandro Manzoni, Giuseppe Verdi, Francesco Hayez to name a few, have helped and contributed to fueling the spirit and hope of an entire nation.
Today, talking about the Risorgimento and Unity does not only mean reasoning with a look towards the past, but also means honoring the memory and spirit of those people who fought to achieve the goal and above all stimulating the new generations to follow their example.
Why are the objects on display representative of the Risorgimento today? What is their evocative and testimonial power today?
The Camillo Cavour Foundation is pleased to honor the Museo del Risorgimento in Turin's initiative by granting three particularly evocative objects from the period: two of which belong to the Foundation's private collection and one to the City of Turin, owner of the Santena Cavour complex (To), managed by the Foundation. The leather bag containing a refined silver and ivory toiletry set with his personal effects refers to the extraordinary "saison des voyages" that opened the doors of Europe to Camillo Cavour.
The travels – a veritable Grand Tour of Northern European countries – allowed Cavour to acquire an uncommon amount of information, enriching his knowledge, which he would use both in his entrepreneurial activities and once he entered politics.
From his first trip in 1835, in an alternating series of social and cultural engagements, he visited hospitals, hospices, prisons, schools, public establishments and factories, salons, political clubs, theaters, and Parliaments.
In England, Cavour visited English manufacturing companies: workshops, printing houses, breweries powered by steam engines, but especially that railway that would greatly excite him for the fifty kilometers between Liverpool and Manchester traveled in just ninety minutes. On the way back, there was still room for Belgium, Holland, and Germany. When he returned to Turin on July 30, Cavour was a changed man, as Professor Pierangelo Gentile wrote.
The "silver box" that once belonged to the Countess of Castiglione brings us back to the ever-present value of diplomacy – not only official – in relations between States.
The Countess of Castiglione and Costantino Nigra in France, Antonio Panizzi in England, among others, were part of that "unofficial diplomacy" which, by attracting public sympathy for the Italian cause, made an important contribution to achieving the Unification of our Country.
The glasses that belonged to Camillo Cavour recall the extraordinary value of the thought and work of the famous Piedmontese statesman in the creation and development of the newborn Italian State and his ability to place it among the most important European nations.
As the President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano said before the Italian Parliament meeting in joint session on March 17, 2011: "Nor can we forget the European horizon of Cavour's vision and political action, and the significant presence, in the ideal baggage of the Risorgimento, of the generous utopia of the United States of Europe."
Marco Fasano, Director | Camillo Cavour Foundation, Santena (To)
