Description
The Monument to Gabriele Pepe stands in the very center of Campobasso, in the square that bears the patriot's name, in the Murattian district. It is the work of the sculptor Francesco Jerace, from 1913. The Bank of Italy building, with its slightly curved side façade, almost seems to want to welcome it.
Who was it dedicated to? Gabriele Pepe, born in Civitacampomarano in 1779, was a soldier, a man of letters and a patriot from Molise, one of the forerunners of the Risorgimento. His life reads like a novel.
On February 19, 1826, in Florence, he challenged the French poet Lamartine to a duel, after Lamartine had called Italy the "land of the dead" in a short poem. The duel ended with a slight wound to the Frenchman's arm, and for Pepe with the reputation of a hero.
Before that, he had been sentenced to death at twenty after the Neapolitan revolution of 1799: the sentence was commuted to exile. He reached Marseille when his father was already dead, enlisted with the French and on May 10, 1800 crossed the Great St Bernard with Napoleon.
He fought in Spain from 1807 to 1811, where he wrote the military diary Galimatias, and served Joseph Bonaparte and then Joachim Murat. In 1820, with the constitutional uprisings, he was elected deputy for Molise.
With the Restoration he was arrested again and sent into exile in Brünn, in Moravia, from 1821 to 1823. Then he was allowed to live in Florence, where he mixed with Leopardi and Manzoni, joined the Vieusseux circle and the Accademia dei Georgofili and taught history and literature to young people of noble families.
Back home in 1836, in 1848 he was named chief of staff of the National Guard. The king asked him to lead a new government and he refused: the ministry went to his friend Troja.
He died in Civitacampomarano on July 26, 1849, just before the last Bourbon arrest warrant. He was buried with full honors in San Giorgio, but a Sanfedist priest, a certain Bellaroba, scattered his remains.
Who was it dedicated to? Gabriele Pepe, born in Civitacampomarano in 1779, was a soldier, a man of letters and a patriot from Molise, one of the forerunners of the Risorgimento. His life reads like a novel.
On February 19, 1826, in Florence, he challenged the French poet Lamartine to a duel, after Lamartine had called Italy the "land of the dead" in a short poem. The duel ended with a slight wound to the Frenchman's arm, and for Pepe with the reputation of a hero.
Before that, he had been sentenced to death at twenty after the Neapolitan revolution of 1799: the sentence was commuted to exile. He reached Marseille when his father was already dead, enlisted with the French and on May 10, 1800 crossed the Great St Bernard with Napoleon.
He fought in Spain from 1807 to 1811, where he wrote the military diary Galimatias, and served Joseph Bonaparte and then Joachim Murat. In 1820, with the constitutional uprisings, he was elected deputy for Molise.
With the Restoration he was arrested again and sent into exile in Brünn, in Moravia, from 1821 to 1823. Then he was allowed to live in Florence, where he mixed with Leopardi and Manzoni, joined the Vieusseux circle and the Accademia dei Georgofili and taught history and literature to young people of noble families.
Back home in 1836, in 1848 he was named chief of staff of the National Guard. The king asked him to lead a new government and he refused: the ministry went to his friend Troja.
He died in Civitacampomarano on July 26, 1849, just before the last Bourbon arrest warrant. He was buried with full honors in San Giorgio, but a Sanfedist priest, a certain Bellaroba, scattered his remains.