Tito Speri (2 August 1825 - 3 March 1853) was an Italian patriot and hero of the

Risorgimento The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single ...

Life

Speri was born in

Brescia Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo. ...

. He began his military career as a volunteer in the

First Italian Independence War The First Italian War of Independence ( it, Prima guerra d'indipendenza italiana), part of the Italian Unification (''Risorgimento''), was fought by the Kingdom of Sardinia (Piedmont) and Italian volunteers against the Austrian Empire and other ...

in 1848, has been engaged in the Battle of Sclemo 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 The Ten Days of Brescia ( it, Dieci giornate di Brescia) was a revolt which broke out in the northern Italian city of that name, which lasted from 23 March to 1 April 1849. In the early 19th century Brescia was subject of the Austrian empire, as ...

in which the town earned the nickname of ''Leonessa d'Italia'' (Lioness of Italy). He then commanded the defence of ''Porta Torrelunga'' (what is now ''Piazza Arnaldo'') and the square that now bears his name. The revolt broke out, profiting from the Austrian army's departure towards

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

, 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 (), sometimes Tessin (), officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino,, informally ''Canton Ticino'' ; lmo, Canton Tesin ; german: Kanton Tessin ; french: Canton du Tessin ; rm, Chantun dal Tessin . ...

Lugano Lugano (, , ; lmo, label=Ticinese dialect, Ticinese, Lugan ) is a city and municipality in Switzerland, part of the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino. It is the largest city of both Ticino and the Italian-speaking southern Switzerland. Luga ...

, en route to

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

to join the

Mazzini Giuseppe Mazzini (, , ; 22 June 1805 – 10 March 1872) was an Italian politician, journalist, and activist for the unification of Italy (Risorgimento) and spearhead of the Italian revolutionary movement. His efforts helped bring about the in ...

an riots. 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 The ''Quadrilatero'' (, for greater specificity often called the "Quadrilateral fortresses") is the traditional name of a defensive system of the Austrian Empire in the Lombardy-Venetia region of Italy, which connected the fortresses of Peschie ...

as one of the

Belfiore martyrs The Belfiore martyrs were a group of pro-independence fighters condemned to death by hanging between 1852 and 1853 during the Italian Risorgimento. They included Tito Speri and the priest Enrico Tazzoli and are named after the site where the se ...

. He is buried in the ''Cimitero Monumentale'' of Brescia.

External links

Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Speri 1825 births 1853 deaths People from Brescia Italian people of the Italian unification People of the First Italian War of Independence Italian exiles