Victor Emmanuel II - Milan, Italy
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Metro2
N 45° 27.850 E 009° 11.354
32T E 514793 N 5034532
Victor Emmanuel II was the first King of a United Italy.
Waymark Code: WMJ73X
Location: Lombardia, Italy
Date Posted: 10/04/2013
Views: 15
This sculpture of Victor Emmanuel II is located in the square in front of Milan's Duomo.
The larger than lifesized equestrian sculpture shows the monarch on horseback in military garb. The horse appears to have been brought to an abrupt stop. The work in set upon an elaborate stepped plinth (rising about 25 feet) with reliefs and lions statues. The 1896 bronze work is by Ercole Rosa.
Additional photos of the work can be seen at (
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Wikipedia (
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"Victor Emmanuel II (Vittorio Emanuele Maria Alberto Eugenio Ferdinando Tommaso; 14 March 1820 – 9 January 1878) was king of Sardinia from 1849 until, on 17 March 1861, he assumed the title King of Italy to become the first king of a united Italy since the 6th century, a title he held until his death in 1878. The Italians gave him the epithet Father of the Homeland (Italian: Padre della Patria).
Biography
Victor Emanuel was born the eldest son of Charles Albert, Prince of Carignano and Maria Theresa of Austria. His father succeeded a distant cousin as King of Sardinia in 1831. He lived for some years of his youth in Florence and showed an early interest in politics, the military, and sports. In 1842 he married his cousin Adelaide of Austria. He was styled as the Duke of Savoy prior to becoming King of Sardinia.
He took part in the First Italian War of Independence under his father, fighting in the front line at the battles of Pastrengo, Santa Lucia, Goito and Custoza.
He became King of Sardinia in 1849 when his father had abdicated the throne after a humiliating military defeat by the Austrians at Novara. Victor Emanuel was immediately able to obtain a rather favorable armistice at Vignale by the Austrian commander, Radetzky. The treaty, however, was not ratified by the Piedmontese chamber, and Vittorio Emanuele retaliated by firing Prime Minister Claudio Gabriele de Launay, replacing him with Massimo D'Azeglio. After new elections, the peace with Austria was accepted by the new Chamber of Deputies. In 1849 he also fiercely suppressed the revolt in Genoa, defining the rebels as a "vile and infected race of canailles". In 1852, he appointed Count Camillo Benso of Cavour Prime Minister of Piedmont-Sardinia. This turned out to be a wise choice as Cavour was a political mastermind and a major player in Italian unification in his own right. Victor Emanuel II soon became the symbol of the Italian Risorgimento, the Italian unification movement. He was especially popular in the Kingdom of Sardinia because of his respect for the new constitution and his liberal reforms."