Porta Pia breach, when Rome became the capital of Italy

The Kingdom of Italy, unified in 1861, remained without its capital for ten years. Rome belonged to the Papal Statesruled by the Pope and protected by Napoleon III France. The pontiff, Pius IXrefused to yield the temporal power (i.e. the political government of the territory, distinct from spiritual power on the Church, which the Pope still exercises). In 1870, when the empire of Napoleon III collapsed, the kingdom of Italy was finally able to proceed with the occupation of the eternal city. Italian soldiers opened one Breccia in the walls of Rome Near Porta Pia and penetrated the city. Rome was proclaimed the capital the following year, but although the government had issued a law to protect the Pope and guarantee him to exercise his spiritual authority, the Church did not recognize annexation and imposed on Catholics not to participate in the political life of the Kingdom of Italy. The question would have been resolved only after sixty years.

The unification of Italy and the Roman question

The city of Rome and the surrounding area were governed by the Church For more than a thousand yearsfrom the eighth century AD. C. to 1870. Before the unification of Italy Papal States It extended over most of central Italy. When the unit was built, between 1859 and 1861, the Kingdom of Italy occupied a significant part of the territory (Romagna, Marche, Umbria), but was forced to leave Rome and Lazio to the Pope.

The pontiff was in fact “Protected” by Napoleon IIIEmperor of the French, who needed the support of Catholics to maintain power in France. Since 1849 French troops had been stationed in the Eternal City and against Napoleon, it was not possible to act, also because it had been the main ally of the Kingdom of Sardinia in the process of Italian unification. Initially the capital was therefore fixed in Turin.

However, the Italian ruling class was aware that the real capital of the new kingdom of Italy does not It could have been that Romefor the immense symbolic value of the city and for the fact that the Pope’s temporal power appeared more and more anachronistic. On March 27, 1861 Camillo Cavour, Prime Minister, solemnly declared in Parliament that Rome was to be considered the capital of the new state:

Rome is the only city of Italy that has no exclusively municipal memories; The whole history of Rome from the time of the Caesars now is the history of a city whose importance extends infinitely beyond its territory, of a city, that is, intended to be the capital of a great state.

It was one purely symbolic proclamationgiven that the kingdom of Italy did not control Rome, but it entered what the government’s intentions were.

From Aspromonte to Mentana

Even the Democrats believed that Rome should become the capital. In 1862 a group of volunteers, led by Garibaldi, organized An expedition to conquer the city. The Italian army, however, was forced to intervene and stop them by force, at the request of Napoleon III. In the clash, which took place in Calabria on the Aspromonte massif, Garibaldi reported a wound to one leg.

Two years later, the government signed with the empire of Napoleon III The September Convention: In exchange for the gradual withdrawal of French troops from Rome, the Italian government undertook to respect the Pope’s territory, to block any attempt at invasion from the outside and transfer the capital from Turin to another city, thus sanctioning the renunciation of Rome. Florence was chosen, which became the capital in 1865. The following year, following the war between Prussia and Austria, the Kingdom of Italy he conquered the Venetowith the city of Venice, and attention to Rome increased further. In 1867 Garibaldi and his volunteers tried to conquer the city again, organizing a revolt inside, but were stopped in one Battle at the town of Mentana by the papal army and the French soldiers still present in Rome.

In the meantime, the government also tried to obtain the sale of the eternal city for diplomaticbut the Pope refused any compromise and in 1864 he published the Syllablea list of the “errors” of modernity, condemning the idea of ​​nation and liberal regimes in no uncertain terms. Four years later he summoned the Vatican Council i and proclaimed the dogma of papalphalability, declaring that when he speaks Former cathedrathe pontiff is inspired by God and therefore cannot make mistakes: it was a way to strengthen his authority.

Porta Pia breach

In 1870 the Pope was forced to give in power. On September 2, Napoleon III France suffered a heavy defeat in the Battle of Sedanthe second empire collapsed and was replaced by a republican regime: Pius IX had lost his protector. The Italian government, led by Giovanni Lanzaagain tried to convince the Pope to give in power but, in the face of the refusal, he decided to act by force. He therefore organized a shipping body, made up of over 60,000 effective, and entrusted the general command Raffaele Cadorna. On September 10, the body, divided into various columns, penetrated the papal territory, which was defended by about 13,000 soldiers. On day 20 the Italian soldiers began the cannonimento of the walls of Rome. The first breach opened near Porta Pia, at the beginning of the Via Nomentana. A group of bersaglieri entered Rome through the breach. The papal army, after opposing a little more than symbolic resistance, had to surrender: the Pope’s temporal power was over. During the battle they died 49 Italian soldiers and 20 pontifies.

The consequences of Rome socket: from the law of guarentigie to the pacts of the Lateran

In February 1871, the Italian government officially announced the Transfer of the capital to Romewhich was completed in July. The government also tried to regulate relations with the Holy See and on 13 May issued the Guarentigie law (ie “of the guarantees”), with which he committed himself to guaranteeing full freedom to the Church and proclaimed the extraterritoriality of the Vatican and Lateran buildings. Basically, the government wanted to put the pontiff in the conditions of exercise spiritual power over Catholics. Pius IX, however, refused to recognize the annexation of Rome, refusing any relationship with the Kingdom of Italy. In 1874 he issued the provision known as “Non Expedit” (literally “not convenient”), with which he imposed on Italian Catholics not to participate in Italian political life. The Roman question would have been resolved with i Lateran Pacts In 1929, from which Vatican city was born.