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| MILAN HOMEPAGE » PORTA VITTORIA AREA » WHAT TO SEE |
Rotonda della Besana |
This area is mailnly characterized by Piazza Cinque Giornate,
in which stay a monument commemorating the anti-Austrian insurrection
of 1848, designed by Giuseppe Grandi. The figures simbolyze the
Five Days of the insurrection, whose deads are buried in the cript
below.
The Five Days of Milan(from March 18 to 22, 1848) of intense street
fighting in Milan between the rebelling Milanese population and
Austrian troops under the old marshal, Radetzky marked the beginning
of the 1848 revolutions in northern Italy and resulted in the Austrian
withdrawal from the city.
Tension between the Austrian administration and the Milanese citizens
was mounting for several months prior to the insurrection. In September
1847 the police shot at a crowd that was honoring the new archbishop
of Milan, Romilli, and singing hymns on behalf of Pope Pius IX,
leaving one dead and sixty wounded. In January 1848 the Milanese
stopped using tobacco, an important source of revenue for the state.
Radetzky ordered his soldiers to smoke large cigars in the street,
a provocative move that led to clashes with the local population
and left six dead and fifty injured.
Piazza Cinque Giornate |
News of the revolution in Vienna and the dismissal of Metternich
reached Milan on March 17, generating a lot of political excitement
and hopes. A group of young radical republicans decided to organize
a large demonstration demanding free press, the establishment of
a civilian guard and the convocation of a national assembly. On
March 18 a crowd of 10,000 people assembled, some of them armed,
in front of the town hall and quickly invaded the government palace,
killing a guard and forcing the Vice-governor O'Donell to accept
their political demands, most importantly, the formation of a civilian
guard. Radetzky ordered his troops to recapture the government buildings,
and an intense combat ensued. The insurrection spread spontaneously
throughout Milan; the insurgents erected hundreds of barricades,
1600 by the morning of March 19, in the narrow streets of Milan
using carriages, pianos, and sofas, thus rendering the movement
of the Austrian troops difficult. The combat was split into many
isolated battles which was advantageous to the Milanese who were
able to capture arms and ammunition from the enemy. While almost
the entire Milanese society supported the revolt, the lower classes,
artisans and workers, played the most significant role in the combat,
suffering the bulk of the 409 Milanese dead.
Largo Marinai d'Italia |
The revolt brought into the open the political differences within
the Milanese camp. On March 20 a republican group, led by Carlo
Cattaneo and Enrico Cernuschi (the strategic brain of the insurrection),
created a war council to coordinate and direct the military operations.
This stimulated the conservative Podestà of Milan, Count
Gabrio Casati, and other moderate aristocrats of Milan's municipality
to establish a provisional government (March 22), thus assuming
power and preventing the republicans from gaining the upper hand.
In fact, earlier they were even ready to accept two truce proposals
from Radetzky, but Cattaneo and the war council forced them to reject
those proposals. Casati and his colleagues also sent representatives
to Turin to convince Charles Albert, Piedmont's ruler, to intervene
and not only to expel the Austrians out of Lombardy but also to
check the radical elements and prevent them from proclaiming a republican
democracy. With the formation of the provisional government, Cattaneo's
group dissolved the war council, merging it to a new defense committee
which the new government established. Clearly the republicans and
democrats who led to a military victory were defeated politically
by the moderate aristocrats and had to accept a subordinate position.
The new defense committee brought the insurrection to a successful
conclusion; on March 22 Radetzky ordered his troops to evacuate
Milan.
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