Tito Speri was an Italian patriot and hero of the Risorgimento.

Life

Speri was born in Brescia

Brescia

Brescia is a city and comune in the region of Lombardy in northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, between the Mella and the Naviglio, with a population of around 197,000. It is the second largest city in Lombardy, after the capital, Milan...

.

He began his military career as a volunteer in the First Italian Independence War in 1848 and after that war ended in an armistice he returned to Brescia, where he gave clandestine assistance to preparations for the Ten Days of Brescia

Ten Days of Brescia

The Ten Days of Brescia was a revolt which broke out in the northern Italian city of that name, which lasted from March 23 to April 1, 1849.In the early 19th century Brescia was part of the Austrian puppet state called Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia...

. He then commanded the defence of Porta Torrelunga (what is now Piazza Arnaldo) and the piazza that now bears his name. The revolt broke out, profiting from the Austrian army's departure towards Piedmont

Kingdom of Sardinia

The Kingdom of Sardinia consisted of the island of Sardinia first as a part of the Crown of Aragon and subsequently the Spanish Empire , and second as a part of the composite state of the House of Savoy . Its capital was originally Cagliari, in the south of the island, and later Turin, on the...

, and ending on 1 April 1849.

Speri took part in several of its armed clashes and so, on the city's surrender, he took refuge in the Swiss Ticino

Ticino

Canton Ticino or Ticino is the southernmost canton of Switzerland. Named after the Ticino river, it is the only canton in which Italian is the sole official language...

 at Lugano

Lugano

Lugano is a city of inhabitants in the city proper and a total of over 145,000 people in the agglomeration/city region, in the south of Switzerland, in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino, which borders Italy...

, en route to Turin

Turin

Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...

 to join the Mazzini

Giuseppe Mazzini

Giuseppe Mazzini , nicknamed Soul of Italy, was an Italian politician, journalist and activist for the unification of Italy. His efforts helped bring about the independent and unified Italy in place of the several separate states, many dominated by foreign powers, that existed until the 19th century...

an ritos. He returned to Brescia shortly after an amnesty was declared, but his conspiratorial activities were discovered and he was arrested and hung within the Austrian Quadrilatero

Quadrilatero

The Quadrilatero is the traditional name of a defensive system of the Austrian Empire in the Lombardy-Venetia, which connected the fortresses of Peschiera, Mantua, Legnago and Verona between the Mincio, the Po and Adige Rivers...

 as one of the Belfiore martyrs

Belfiore martyrs

The Belfiore martyrs were a group of pro-independence fighters condemned to death by hanging in 1853 during the Italian Risorgimento. They included Tito Speri and the priest Enrico Tazzoli and are named after the site where the sentence was carried out, in the valley of Belfiore at the south...

.

External links

Biography