Louis Visconti - architect

Roman who made his mark on Paris

The French painter Théophile Vauchelet's
portrait of  the architect Louis Visconti 

The architect Louis Visconti, who designed a number of public buildings and squares as well as numerous private residences in Paris, was born on this day in 1791 in Rome.

Notably, Visconti was the architect chosen to design the tomb to house the remains of Napoleon Bonaparte after King Louis Philippe I obtained permission from Britain in 1840 to return them from Saint Helena, the remote island in the South Atlantic where the former emperor had died in exile in 1921.

Born Louis Tullius Joachim Visconti, he came from a family of archaeologists. His grandfather, Giambattista Antonio Visconti was the founder of the Vatican Museums and his father, Ennio Quirino Visconti, was an archaeologist and art historian.

Ennio had been a consul of the short-lived Roman Republic, proclaimed in February 1798 after Louis Alexandre Berthier, a general of Napoleon, had invaded Rome, but was forced to leave with the restoration of papal control.

He and his family moved to Paris and were naturalised as French citizens, with Ennio becoming a curator of antiquities and paintings at the Musée du Louvre. 

Visconti's magnificent tomb for Napoleon Bonaparte, in
red porphyry on a granite base, standing 16ft high

In 1808, Louis enrolled at Paris's École des Beaux-Arts.  He excelled in architecture and secured second prize in the architecture section of the Prix de Rome in 1814 and the architecture department prize at the École des Beaux-Arts in 1817.

He was was appointed by the city in 1826 to oversee building works in the 3rd and 8th arrondissements and subsequently as curator of the 8th section of public monuments, which comprised the Bibliothèque Royale, the monument on Place des Victoires, Porte Saint-Martin, Saint-Denis and the Colonne Vendôme.

He became divisional architect in 1848, and government architect in 1849.

In May 1848, he produced a first-draft design for completing the Palais du Louvre. He was made architect to the Palais des Tuileries in July 1852 and architect to Napoleon III the following year.

The Hôtel de Pontalba in Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré,
now home to the US Ambassador to France

Visconti built a number of Renaissance-style public fountains in Paris, including the Fontaine Gaillon, the Fontaine Louvois, the Fontaine Molière, the Fontaine Quatre Evèques and the Fontaine Saint-Sulpice. He was an important participant in the revival of the Picturesque and Gothic styles, as is reflected in the Château de Lussy (1844), which is modelled after an English cottage.

Among several large houses he designed, the Hôtel de Pontalba in Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, built in 1839, is an outstanding example.

Hôtel de Pontalba is an example of an hôtel particulier, a type of large townhouse. It was commissioned by New Orleans-born Baroness Micaela Almonester de Pontalba. Nowadays, it is the official residence of the United States Ambassador to France.

During his time as the official architect for the Louvre under Napoleon III, he was commissioned to design the tomb for Napoleon Bonaparte.

Louis Philippe had arranged for Napoleon’s remains to be brought to France in 1840 and they were first buried in the Chapelle Saint-Jérôme in Hôtel des Invalides, the complex of buildings in the 7th arrondissement of Paris that contains museums and monuments relating to the military history of France, as well as a hospital and a retirement home for war veterans, the building's original purpose.

The buildings include the Dôme des Invalides, the tallest church in Paris at a height of 107m (351ft), which contains the tombs of some of France's war heroes. It became Napoleon’s final resting place in Visconti’s magnificent, dramatic tomb, crafted in red porphyry on a green granite base, circled by a crown of laurels, standing 5m (16 feet) high and 4.5m wide.

The remains of the Forum of ancient Rome attract some
4.5 million visitors every year

Travel tip:

When the new Roman Republic was declared in 1798, its supporters symbolically gathered in the Foro Romano, the remains of the Forum of ancient Rome, a rectangular piazza (square) surrounded by important government buildings at the centre of the city. For centuries the Forum was the centre of day-to-day life in Rome, a market place but also the venue for public speeches, criminal trials, elections and triumphal processions. Statues and monuments were built to commemorate the city's great men. Located between the Palatine and Capitoline Hills, the Forum today attracts some 4.5 million visitors every year.

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Caravaggio's The Entombment of Christ
is among the Vatican's art treasures 

Travel tip:

The Vatican Museums, located inside the Vatican City, display works from the immense collection amassed by popes throughout the centuries including several renowned Roman sculptures and some of the most important masterpieces of Renaissance art in the world. The museums, founded by Pope Julius II in the 16th century, contain roughly 70,000 works, of which 20,000 are on display. The Sistine Chapel, with its ceiling decorated by Michelangelo, and the Stanze di Raffaello, decorated by Raphael, are on the visitor route through the Vatican Museums, which are visited by some six million people each year, making in the fifth most visited art museum in the world. The museums employ a full-time staff of 640 people.

More reading:

Why Luigi Vanvitelli was the 18th century's most celebrated architect

How architect Giovanni Battista Vaccarini reshaped Catania in Sicily

The founding of the papal Swiss Guard

Also on this day:

1881: The birth of Futurist painter Carlo Carrà

1917: The birth of film director Giuseppe De Santis

1929: The Lateran Treaty declares the Vatican an independent state

1948: The birth of footballer Carlo Sartori

1995: The birth of singer Gianluca Ginoble


(Picture credits: Napoleon Bonaparte's tomb by Son of Groucho; Hôtel de Pontalba by Mouloud47; Rome Forum by Rennett Stowe; via Wikemedia Commons)

(Paintings: Portrait of Visconti - Musée Carnavalet, Paris; Caravaggio's The Entombment of Christ - Pinacoteca Vaticano, Rome)

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10 February

Andrea Silenzi - footballer

Forward was the first Italian to play in the English Premier League

The footballer Andrea Silenzi, who made history in 1995 when he became the first Italian to be signed by an English Premier League club, was born on this day in 1966 in Rome. A 6ft 3ins centre forward, Silenzi joined Nottingham Forest for £1.8 million - the equivalent of about £3.5 million (€4 million) today - and although he was not a success in England, he paved the way for stars such as Gianfranco Zola, Gianluca Vialli and Paolo Di Canio to make their mark in the Premier League. Read more…

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Ernesto Teodoro Moneta – Nobel Prize winner

Supporter of Garibaldi was also an ‘apostle for peace’

Ernesto Teodoro Moneta, who was at times both a soldier and a pacifist, died on this day in 1918.  Moneta was only 15 when he was involved in the Five Days of Milan uprising against the Austrians in 1848 and supported Garibaldi’s unification battle, but in later life he became a peace activist. Even after he won the Nobel Peace prize in 1907, he publicly supported Italy’s entry into the First World War. On the Nobel Prize official website, however, he is described as ‘a militant pacifist’. Read more…

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ENI – oil and gas multinational

Italian energy company 66 years old today

The Rome-based multinational oil and gas company ENI, one of the world’s largest industrial concerns, was founded on this day in 1953. The company, which operates in 79 countries, is currently valued at $52.2 billion (€47.6 billion) and employs almost 34,000 people.  It is the 11th largest oil company in the world.  Its operations include exploration for and production of oil and natural gas, the storage and distribution of petroleum products and the production of base chemicals and plastics. Read more…

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Raffaele Lauro – author and politician

Sorrentine's talents include writing, film directing and song

Italian Senator and journalist Raffaele Lauro was born on this day in 1944 in the resort of Sorrento in Campania.  A prolific writer, Lauro has also been an important political figure for more than 30 years.  A prominent figure in local government in Sorrento, Lauro was appointed a Senator for Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom Party in 2008, representing Campania, but still had time to pursue his interests in a diverse range of subjects, including writing three books about the singer-songwriter Lucio Dalla. Read more…

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Andrea Silenzi - footballer

Forward was the first Italian to play in the English Premier League

Andrea Silenzi was a leading striker for
Torino before joining Nottingham Forest

The footballer Andrea Silenzi, who made history in 1995 when he became the first Italian to be signed by a Premier League club, was born on this day in 1966 in Rome.

A 6ft 3ins centre forward, Silenzi had enjoyed Serie A success with Torino in particular, his form persuading Nottingham Forest to offer £1.8 million - the equivalent of about £3.5 million (€4 million) today - to bring him to England.

When Forest manager Frank Clark proudly announced his new man before the 1995-96 season, it was seen as an important moment for the fledgling Premier League, then only three seasons old.

The Italian League at the time was the most glamorous in Europe, wealthy enough to hire stars from all around the world, including many British players; it was rare for Italian players to move abroad. Yet Silenzi, a teammate of Diego Maradona during a two-year stay with Napoli who had won a call-up to the Italian national team after his 17 goals for Torino in the 1993-94 season, had agreed to come to England.

Forest gave Silenzi a contract worth £360,000 a year, a considerable sum at that time. Was the tide now turning, with the money flooding in from lucrative television contracts putting the Premier League clubs on an equal footing?

Silenzi made a limited impact at Nottingham Forest but
was still a trailblazer for Italians in the Premier League

In the event, Silenzi was unable to make the impact that Forest had hoped from him, making only 12 Premier League appearances in his two seasons in England. His only goals - just two - came against smaller clubs in the cup competitions and he went back to Italy in October 1996, joining Venezia on loan before Forest cancelled his contract.

Yet although Silenzi was branded a flop, his arrival did mark the beginning of a trend and within a couple of years fans of the Premier League were able to watch high-quality Italian players at a number of clubs.

Chelsea signed three Italians in Gianluca Vialli, Gianfranco Zola and Roberto Di Matteo, Middlesbrough recruited Gianluca Festa and Fabrizio Ravanelli and Sheffield Wednesday brought in Benito Carbone and Paolo Di Canio.

Derby County joined the trend by signing Francesco Baiano and Stefano Eranio, Crystal Palace landed Attilio Lombardo and Tottenham attracted Nicola Berti.

Silenzi had begun his career in the youth team of Pescatori Ostia, a junior club based at the beach resort of Lido di Ostia, 30km (19 miles) outside Rome, before beginning his professional career with Lodigiani, now extinct but then the capital’s third-biggest club after AS Roma and Lazio.

Paolo Di Canio joined Sheffield Wednesday in the wave of
Italians that followed Silenzi to the Premier League

His goals for Lodigiani earned him a move to Tuscan club Arezzo, then in Serie B, and although he was not successful there his next move, back to Serie C to play for Reggiana, paid dividends.  His nine goals in his first season for the Reggio Emilia team helped them win promotion to Serie B, and he was the top scorer for the whole of Serie B in 1989-90 with 23 goals.

That led to interest from Napoli, who were then the best team in Italy, winners of both Serie A and the Coppa Italia in 1990. Silenzi made a immediate impact, scoring twice against Juventus in the Supercoppa Italia on his debut.

In the event, competing with such stars as Maradona, Zola and the Brazil forward Careca, Silenzi’s opportunities were limited in Naples, yet the move to Torino confirmed his talent, which is why Forest, who had finished third in the Premier League in 1994-95, saw him as a player worth signing.

Silenzi was treated harshly by the English press, with one national newspaper recently listing him as one of the “10 worst foreign signings” in Premier League history. Yet in a recent interview he insisted he enjoyed the experience of playing in England.

After resuming his career in Italy, Silenzi retired from playing in 2000. Since then, he has worked for a number of clubs in the role of sporting director and appeared as a pundit on television but is no longer involved in football, devoting his energies to running an expanding construction business in his home city.

One of his two children - his son Christian - followed him into football, however. Aged 21, he plays for Albissola, a third-tier team from Liguria, as a winger.

The beach at Ostia Lido attracts many visitors from
nearby Rome during the summer months

Travel tip:

The seaside resort of Ostia Lido, where Silenzi was a youth player, lies 30km (19 miles) to the southwest of Rome, situated just across the mouth of the Tiber river from Fiumicino, home of Rome’s largest international airport. It is the only district of the Rome municipal area on the sea. It adjoins the archeological site of the ancient Roman city of Ostia Antica, once the harbour city of Rome, which has many well preserved remains. Many Romans spend their summer holidays in the modern town, swelling the population of 85,000.

Hotels in Ostia Lido by Booking.com

The Basilica di San Prospero, built between the 16th and
18th centuries, is a notable building in Reggio Emilia 

Travel tip:

The city of Reggio Emilia, where Silenzi played for the local Reggiana team, may lack the cultural wealth of neighbouring Parma and is consequently less visited, yet it has an attractive historic centre with a number of notable buildings, including the Basilica della Ghiara and the 10th century Basilica di San Prospero, which overlooks the elegant Piazza of the same name. The province is also believed to have given Italy its tricolore national flag, with evidence that a short-lived 18th century republic, the Repubblica Cispadana, had a flag of red, white and green.  It can also claim to be the home of Italy's world famous hard cheese, Parmigiano-Reggiano, which is thought to have originated in the commune of Bibbiano, about 15km (9 miles) to the southeast of the city.

Reggio Emilia hotels by Booking.com

More reading:

Why Chelsea fans voted Gianfranco Zola their all-time greatest player

The Juventus star who became a favourite at Middlesbrough

How AC Milan made Gianluca Lentini the world's most expensive player

Also on this day:

1482: The death of sculptor Luca della Robbia

1791: The birth of painter Francesco Hayez

1918: The death of Ernesto Teodoro Moneta, Nobel Peace Prize winner

1944: The birth of author and politician Raffaele Lauro

1953: The founding of energy giant ENI

(Picture credits: Beach at Ostia by Bats,N.; Basilica by Lspigon)

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9 February

Ferdinando Carulli - classical guitarist and composer

Neapolitan wrote first guide to playing the instrument

The composer Ferdinando Carulli, who published the first complete method for playing the classical guitar as well as writing more than 400 works for the instrument, was born on this day in 1770 in Naples.  Carulli was also influential in changing the design of the guitar, which had a smaller body and produced a less resonant sound when he started out, to something much more like the classical guitars of today. Read more...

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Pope Gregory XV

Legally-trained pontiff was against witchcraft and for secret ballots

Gregory XV, who was christened Alessandro Ludovisi, became pope on this day in 1621. He was the last pope to issue a papal ordinance against witchcraft with his ‘Declaration against Magicians and Witches’, put out in March 1623. He was also the last pontiff to be elected by acclamation rather than through a secret ballot.  Already 67 years of age and in a weak state of health when he was chosen as pope, he relied heavily on his 25-year-old nephew, Ludovico Ludovisi, to assist him in his duties. Read more…

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Ezechiele Ramin – missionary

Priest from Padua who was murdered in Brazil

Ezechiele Ramin, a Comboni missionary who was shot to death by hired killers after standing up for the rights of peasant farmers and traditional tribesmen in a remote rural area in Brazil, was born on this day in 1953 in Padua.  An easy-going and popular man who played the guitar, Ramin was only 32 when he was murdered in July 1985, having worked in the South American country for about a year and a half.  Read more…

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Vito Antuofermo - world champion boxer

Farmer's son from deep south who won middleweight title 

Vito Antuofermo, who went from harvesting grapes, olives and almonds in the fields as a boy to becoming a world champion in the boxing ring, was born on this day in 1953 in Palo del Colle, a small town in Apulia. He took up boxing after his family emigrated to the United States in the mid-1960s.  After turning professional in 1971, he became European light-middleweight champion in January 1976 and world middleweight champion in June 1979. Read more...

Ferdinando Carulli - classical guitarist and composer

Neapolitan wrote first guide to playing the instrument

Ferdinando Carulli was born in Naples but spent much of
his life in Paris, where he taught and composed guitar music

The composer Ferdinando Carulli, who published the first complete method for playing the classical guitar as well as writing more than 400 works for the instrument, was born on this day in 1770 in Naples.

Carulli was also influential in changing the design of the guitar, which had a smaller body and produced a less resonant sound when he started out, to something much more like the classical guitars of today.

The son of an intellectual advisor to the Naples Jurisdiction, Carulli first trained as a cellist and received instruction in musical theory from a local priest.

He became interested in the guitar in his 20s and became so enthusiastic about the instrument he decided to devote himself to it entirely.  The guitar was little played and there were no guitar teachers in Naples in the late 18th century, so Carulli had to devise his own method of playing.

In time, he began to give concerts in Naples, playing some pieces of his own composition. These were popular, attracting large audiences who enjoyed the different sound that the guitar produced.

Carulli did much to make
the guitar widely popular

This encouraged Carulli to venture further afield and he engaged on a tour of Europe. He met his future wife, Marie-Josephine Boyer, in France. They married in around 1801 and had a son, Gustavo.  Carulli moved with his family to Milan, where he began to publish some of his works, but it was not long before they decided to settle in Paris, which was then seen as the capital of the music world.

Carulli became both a successful musician and teacher in Paris, attracting other guitarists from across Europe to join him in the French capital, helping him fulfil his ambition of making guitar music fashionable and popular, even in such a challenging environment. Members of the Parisian nobility would come to him for lessons. Filippo Gragnani, another Italian guitarist, with whom he collaborated on some pieces, devoted a number of duets to Carulli.

It was in Paris that Carulli wrote his method of classical guitar, entitled Harmony Applied to the Guitar. The book was hugely popular and many editions were published. His most influential work, Method, Op. 27, published in 1810, is still used widely today in training students of the classical guitar.

The guitar Carulli would have first played would have had
five pairs of strings, similar to this one

Later in life, Carulli worked with the instrument makers Antonio de Torres Jurado and Pierre René Lacôte in introducing significant changes for improving the sound of the guitar.

By the early 19th century, the guitar had evolved from a shallow lute-like instrument with five pairs of strings to something more closely resembling the guitars of today, with a long neck and circular sound hole in the middle, and with a deeper body providing greater resonance of sound. Early guitars produced a sound more like that of a violin.

Carulli died in Paris in February 1841, eight days after his 71st birthday.

The Conservatorio di Musica San Pietro a Majella in Naples
was established during Napoleonic rule of the city

Travel tip:

The famous Conservatorio di Musica San Pietro a Majella in Naples evolved from four institutions set up in the 16th century with the prime purpose of providing a refuge for orphan children.  The name ‘conservatorio’ relates to this original purpose, which was to conserve the lives of the children.  The oldest was the orphanage of Santa Maria di Loreto, situated in the poor fisherman’s district of the city. These institutions aimed to provide tuition in various skills, including music.  In time they acquired such a good reputation for providing a musical education that they began to be seen as music colleges primarily, and Naples eventually became one of the most important centres for musical training in Europe, nicknamed the “conservatory of Europe". Under the rule of Joachim Murat, the French cavalry leader Napoleon installed as King of Naples for a short period in the early 19th century, the original four conservatories were consolidated into a single institution, which was relocated in 1826 to the premises of the ex-monastery, San Pietro a Maiella.

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The Teatro di San Carlo in Naples
adjoins the Royal Palace

Travel tip:

The most famous musical venue in Naples is the Teatro di San Carlo opera house in Via San Carlo, directly adjoining the Royal Palace. It is the oldest continuously active venue for public opera in the world, having opened in 1737, decades before both the Milan's Teatro alla Scala (La Scala) and Venice's Teatro La Fenice.  It is less known that there is smaller theater inside the Royal Palace, often used by the Neapolitan ballet company. Among the resident composers and musical directors in the 19th century, as the venue’s prestige grew, were Gioachino Rossini and Gaetano Donizetti.  One name readily associated with San Carlo is the great tenor, Enrico Caruso, although the Naples-born star in fact did not appear there after 1901, having taken umbrage at being booed by a section of the crowd during a performance of Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore.


More reading:

Antonio Janigro - the cellist who found accidental fame in Yugoslavia

How Luigi Boccherini popularised cello music in the 18th century

How Domenico Sarro's opera was given historic status as the first to be played at Teatro San Carlo

Also on this day:

1621: Alessandro Ludovisi becomes Pope Gregory XV

1891: The birth of politician Pietro Nenni

1953: The birth of boxing world champion Vito Antuofermo

1953: The birth of tragic missionary Ezechiele Ramin

(Picture credits: Conservatorio by Armando Mancini; Teatro di San Carlo by Radomil)

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8 February

Italo Santelli - fencer

Olympic medallist famous for real ‘duel’

The Olympic fencer Italo Santelli, who famously fought a duel with his team captain over a matter of honour, died on this day in 1945 in Livorno, Tuscany.  Santelli won a silver medal at the 1900 Olympics in Paris with a new style of sabre fencing of his own invention. But after competing for Italy be became coach of Hungary, and it was this conflict of interests that sparked an incident at the 1924 Olympics, also in Paris, that led to Santelli and Adolfo Cotronei, Italy’s team captain, engaging in the infamous duel. Read more...

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Nicola Salvi – architect

Creator of Rome’s iconic Trevi Fountain

The architect Nicola Salvi, famous as the designer of the Fontana di Trevi – known in English as the Trevi Fountain and one of the most famous and most visited monuments in Rome – died on this day in 1751. He was working on the Trevi when he passed away, having been engaged on the project since 1732. It had to be finished by Giuseppe Pannini before the giant statue of Oceanus – the Titan God of the Sea in Greek mythology – set in the central niche, was completed by Pietro Bracci. Read more…

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Guercino - Bolognese master

Self-taught artist who became his city's leading painter

The artist known as Guercino was born on this day in 1591 in Cento, a town in what is now Emilia-Romagna region. After the death of Guido Reni he became established as the leading painter in Bologna. His best known works include The Arcadian Shepherds (Et in Arcadia Ego - I too am in Arcadia), which is now on display at the Galleria Nazionale di Arte Antica in Rome, and The Flaying of Marsyas by Apollo, which can be found in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence.  The Vatican altarpiece The Burial of Saint Petronilla is considered his masterpiece. Read more...

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Revolt in Padua

When students and citizens joined forces against their oppressors 

An uprising against the Austrian occupying forces, when students and ordinary citizens fought side by side, took place on this day in Padua in 1848. A street is now named Via VIII Febbraio to commemorate the location of the struggle between the Austrian soldiers and the students and citizens of Padua, when both the University of Padua and the Caffè Pedrocchi briefly became battlegrounds. The rebellion was one of a series of revolts in Italy during 1848, which had started with the Sicilian uprising in January of that year. Read more…

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Italo Santelli - fencer

Olympic medallist famous for real ‘duel’

Italo Santelli set new standards for
sabre fencing with his own technique

The Olympic fencer Italo Santelli, who famously fought a duel with his former team captain over a matter of honour, died on this day in 1945 in Livorno, Tuscany.

Santelli won a silver medal at the 1900 Olympics in Paris with a new style of sabre fencing of his own invention. Originally from Carrodano in Liguria, he fought for Italy but spent a large part of his career coaching Hungary, who he helped become a formidable power in fencing.

It was this conflict of interests that sparked an incident at the 1924 Olympics, also in Paris, that led to Santelli and Adolfo Cotronei, who was Italy’s team captain, engaging in the infamous duel.

It happened during a match between the Italians and the host nation France in the team foil event when Italy’s Aldo Boni was facing off against Lucien Gaudin. With the match tied at four touches each, the Hungarian judge György Kovacs awarded the winning fifth touch to Gaudin, a decision that sparked immediate consternation in the Italian ranks.

Boni rounded on Kovacs, delivering a verbal tirade. But it was in Italian - beyond the official’s comprehension. It just happened that Santelli, in his capacity as Hungary’s coach, witnessed the whole dispute and was asked to step in as interpreter.

Santelli’s translation did not reflect well on Boni, who was asked to apologise for insulting Kovacs. When he refused, Italy were disqualified and the event ended with France winning the gold, with Belgium taking silver and Hungary the bronze.

Italo Santelli, left, in action at the Paris Olympics of 1900,
in which he won a silver medal in the sabre event

That seemed to be the end of the matter until, on the team’s return to Italy, the captain Cotronei, who was also a journalist, wrote an article in which he alleged that Santelli had deliberately portrayed Boni as the villain on the basis that if the Italians were eliminated, his own Hungary team would have a better chance of finishing in a medal position.

Santelli was outraged but the bullish Cotronei stood by his article and, although accounts vary as to who challenged whom, it was somehow agreed that the two would engage in a duel, a dispute-settling method that had been outlawed in many other parts of the western world but was still part of Italian culture even in the early part of the 20th century. Legislation was being drawn up to ban the practice in Italy - driven by Benito Mussolini, then still Prime Minister rather than dictator - but special dispensation was obtained to allow this one to go ahead.

Thus the the stage was set for a date in August for the two to face each other with sabres in the town of Abbazia, a town about 70km (43 miles) southeast of Trieste that later became Opatija in Croatia but was then on Italian soil.

In the event, Cotronei had to take on not Italo Santelli but his son, Giorgio, another fencer, who had invoked a rule under the 18th century Code Duello that allowed him to substitute for his father, who was keen to defend his honour but was by then in his 61st year.

It was at the 1924 Olympics, again in Paris, that Santelli became
embroiled in a dispute between the Italian team and an official

It was not a fight to the death, thankfully, but blood needed to be drawn for a winner to be declared.  Within only a couple of minutes, the nimbler and more agile Santelli junior had inflicted a cut to Cotronei’s face and the duel was over.

Italo Santelli had been educated at the Scuola Magistrale Militare, a military school in Rome, but in 1896 decided to move to Budapest together with brother Otello, also a fencer, and his wife. Their son, Giorgio, was born in Hungary in 1897, although he kept his Italian citizenship and ultimately emigrated to the United States,

It was while working in Hungary that he developed the new style of sabre fencing, involving a much quicker defence than the classical style. It became known as the "modern style" or the “Santelli style” and historians of the sport sometimes refer to Santelli as “the father of modern sabre fencing.”

Although Cotronei was known for his temper - he fought at least six duels in his lifetime - he and Santelli were said to have been reconciled when they met again at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles and subsequently became friends.

The Abbey Church of Santa Maria Assunta, built from
Carrara marble, is one of La Spezia's attractions

Travel tip:

Santelli’s home village of Carrodano is in the province of La Spezia, a port city of 94,000 inhabitants and Liguria’s second city after Genoa. The home of Italy’s largest naval base and a major commercial port, tucked away in a sheltered gulf, La Spezia is so close to the ruggedly beautiful stretch of coastline known as the Cinque Terre, not to mention the picturesque fishing village of Portovenere, that it tends not to be regarded as a tourist attraction. Yet La Spezia has an atmospheric historic centre of narrow streets, not to mention the recently restored 17th century castle and the impressive black and white Carrara marble of the Abbey Church of Santa Maria Assunta.

One of the canals in Livorno's Venetian quarter

Travel tip:

Santelli spent his final days in another of Italy’s northern Mediterranean port cities, Livorno. The second population area in Tuscany after Florence, Livorno has a population of almost 160,000. Although it is a large commercial port with much related industry, it has many attractions, including an elegant sea front – the Terrazza Mascagni - and an historic centre – the Venetian quarter – with canals, and a tradition of serving excellent seafood.  The Terrazza Mascagni is named after the composer Pietro Mascagni, famous for the opera Cavalleria Rusticana, who was born in Livorno.


More reading:

Valentina Vezzali, the fencer who is Italy's most successful athlete

How Luigi Baccali brought home Italy's first Olympic track gold

Ottavio Missoni: From Olympic hurdler to fashion designer

Also on this day:

1591: The birth of Baroque master Guercino

1751: The death of Trevi Fountain architect Nicola Salvi

1848: Padua revolts against the Austrians

(Picture credits: La Spezia church by Davide Papalini; Livorno canal by Daniel Ventura; via Wikimedia Commons)


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