Giuseppe Mazzini - Naples, Italy - Statues of Historic Figures on Waymarking.com

A larger-than-life size bust of Giuseppe Mazzini depicts the hero of Italian unification wearing a double breasted waistcoat and a jacket. He is looking sraight ahead on top of a tall up-tapered marble monument. The shaft of the monument is inscribed:

The base of the monument has a marble plaque which is inscribed:

Giuseppe Mazzini was born on June 22, 1805 in Genoa, Ligurian Republic which was under rule of the French Empire. He graduated from the University of Genoa with a degree in law in 1828. He had an avid interest in both politics and literature and wrote essays for newspapers until he moved to Tuscany in 1927. There he became a member of the secret political organization the Carbonari. He was arrested and imprisoned. In early 1831, he was released from prison, but exiled to Geneva in Switzerland.

In exile Mazzini organized La Giovine Italia ("Young Italy"), a secret society formed to promote Italian unification. Together with other Italian exiles he led a failed attempted to spread the unification movement to the Piedmont area of Italy. On April 30, 1840 Mazzini reformed the Giovine Italia in London.

In 1849, Mazzini return to Italy after Tuscany and Rome were declared Republics. Mazzini was elected leader of the new republic. However, the Pope with military help from the French and the Catholic forces were able to destroy the republic and restore the Pope to power.

In 1861, a new united Kingdom of Italy, minus Venice and Rome, was declared. Italy was partially unified under of monarchy under Victor Emmanuel rather than a republic as Mazzini wished. In 1870, he was arrested after leading a republican uprising in Sicily but was released after Italian troops occupied Rome. Mazzini died in Pisa on March 10, 1872. He was buried in his home town of Genoa.