Some serious work is going on in the background this week in Barga to prepare the city for the celebrations on the 17th March for the 150th Anniversary of the unification of Italy. Maybe we ought to remember that Italy is full of history, but Italy as a country is quite young – unification of most of the various city-states only happened in 1861, after a series of wars to gain independence from foreign rule, and it would take another decade before the Italy as we know it today really took shape. Still, 1861 is the year recognized as the beginning of an independent and unified Italy, when the first Italian Parliament was assembled and the first King of Italy was declared.
Apart from all the flags and banner being put up around the city there are also two technicians, Valentina Genovali and Federica Cesca working on renovating three of the statues closely connected with those events of 150 years ago. Work has started on cleaning and repairing some of the damage that time and pollution has done to the statues of Antonio Mordini on the Fosso, Giuseppe Garibaldi in Piazza Garibaldi in Barga Vecchia and Pietro Tallinucci outside the hospital.
Barga was one of the first cities in Italy to erect a statue to Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882) (article here) The foremost military figure and popular hero of the age of Italian unification known as the Risorgimento with Cavour and Mazzini he is deemed one of the makers of Modern Italy.
Grazie alla generosità della Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca sarà possibile il completo restauro dei più importanti monumenti risorgimentali del nostro territorio.
In occasione delle celebrazioni del 150° Anniversario dell’Unità d’Italia infatti la Fondazione CRL ha promosso e finanziato questa importante iniziativa che permetterà il recupero dei monumenti dedicati alle nostre più importanti figure risorgimentali. Attualmente è già stato completato il restauro della statua del garibaldino Pietro Tallinucci, fondatore dell’ospedale di Barga. In fase di ultimazione invece il lavoro sul monumento a Giuseppe Garibaldi che la nostra comunità inaugurò nel 1885, poco dopo la morte dell’eroe risorgimentale. Sono invece in corso le opere sulla statua di Antonio Mordini, il nostro più illustre personaggio del risorgimento.
L’Amministrazione Comunale vuole ringraziare la Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca per la sensibilità, generosità e attenzione che sempre dimostra nei confronti del nostro territorio.
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Valentina Genovali and Federica Cesca working on the Garibaldi statue in Barga Vecchia