A great personality of the 20th century, Battisti dedicated part of his life to the fight for the Trentinos
Forget about the terrorist recently captured in Bolivia and sentenced to life in prison in Italy. The Cesare Battisti in question is an important figure in Italian history. A national hero.
Activist, journalist, geographer, politician and officer of Alpini, the mountain troop of the Italian army, Cesare Battisti lends his name to public buildings, squares, schools and certainly thousands of avenues throughout Italy. However, many Italians and tourists are unaware of its surprising history.
Born in 1875, in Trento, in the Northern region of Italy, Battisti He dedicated part of his life to the fight for the annexation of Trentino to Italy, dominated until then by the Habsburg, or Austrian, Kingdom.
Battisti is considered the hero of irredentism
Son of a merchant and a noblewoman, he attended high school in Trento, where he began to make his first political experiences. Later, enchanted by the intellectual principles of Marxism, creates a newspaper that is later censored.
In Florence he studied Literature and subsequently obtained a second degree in Geography. Following in the footsteps of his maternal uncle, Dom Luigi Fogolari – sentenced to death by the Austrian government for conspiracy and later granted clemency – embraced the patriotic ideals of irredentism, a doctrine that believed that all Italian regions, although politically separated, were linked by customs and language.
In 1911, convinced that he could obtain results in favor of the Trentine cause against the Austrian empire, Battisti was elected to the Reich Council, the parliament in Vienna.
Soon after the outbreak of the Great War, in 1914, he carried out intense propaganda work in newspapers and magazines in favor of Italian intervention. The following year, Battisti enlisted as a volunteer in the Italian army. He was immediately placed in the Alpine Edolo battalion and then, for war merits, he was promoted to the official battalion of Vicenza VI Alpine Regiment, operating in Monte Baldo and Pasubio.
On July 10, 1916, his battalion was decimated by the infantry division of the Imperial Austro-Hungarian Empire while trying to recover Monte Corno di Vallarsa, occupied by the Austrians. Battisti was arrested and taken to prison in Trento, where he was hanged as a traitor.
Considered by many as a hero, others as a traitor and a spy, Battisti never saw his dream come true. The Trentino region was only effectively annexed to Italian territory on July 16, 1920, four years after his death.
Via Cesare Battisti in the historic center of Milan:
Via Cesare Battisti in the historic center of Rome:
Via Cesare Battisti in the center of Venice:
Via Cesare Battisti in the center of Naples:
