The Siege
of Civitella del Tronto
—The
Real “Last Stand” of the Bourbons
The modern nation state of Italy
was unified in early 1861 through the defeat
of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (or Kingdom
of Naples) by a massive joint undertaking
involving the forces of Giuseppe Garibaldi and
the forces of Victor Emanuel II, king of
Piedmont-Sardinia. Much of that story is told
in the entries on Garibaldi
and on Maria
Sophia, the Last Queen of Naples.
Though a lot of romantic slush is spent on the
Bourbon "last stand" at Gaeta with the young
heroine queen, Maria Sophia, holding off the
invaders (see link, above), the real last
stand came at the fortress of the town of
Civitella del Tronto, a town in the province
of Teramo, within the Abruzzo region of
central Italy. It is located in the Gran Sasso
and Monti della Laga National Park. It is 20
km/12 miles inland from the Adriatic far north
of Naples (240 km/150 mi to be exact). That is
almost in Umbria, much further north than you
would expect if you think of the Kingdom of
Naples as "everything from Naples south." Not
so. Civitella del Tronto is roughly where the
number 2 is on the map (image), at the very
top, in the modern region of Abruzzo and
called "Outer Abruzzo" when it was a province
of the old Bourbon Kingdom of the The Two Sicilies.)
Much
press, even at the time, spoke of the fall of
Gaeta as the end of the Kingdom of Naples. In
one sense it was true. Naples, the capital
city had fallen to Garibaldi in September of
1860, so that part of the kingdom was over and
done with (even though the Bourbon garrison at
Messina on Sicily still held out). The
Piemontese forces came down from the north
picking up territory piece by piece and
incorporating them into what was to be the new
nation. (This included the large territory of
the Papal States
except Rome, itself, which would not fall to
Italy until 1871). On February 18, 1861, the
Piemontese parliament declared the creation of
the new Kingdom of Italy. That was while the
siege of Gaeta was still going on. Other
southern garrisons were holding out as well,
among which was the fortress of Civitella del
Tronto. But there was no longer any doubt as
to the outcome. The Bourbon forces in Gaeta
surrendered on February 13, 1861; the last
garrison on Sicily, Messina, surrendered in
February 15; the Piemontese king, Victor
Emanuel II, officially declared the beginning
of the new kingdom on February 18, 1861. At
that point, only the garrison at Civitella del
Tronto held out. Hopeless doesn't begin to
describe it. The king and queen of Naples had
already fled the kingdom, leaving Gaeta to
become refugees in Rome. Their kingdom of
Naples was through. Yet
—intepret it as you will— the fortress at Civitella
del Tronto decided to make a statement —maybe not
fight to the last man or anything like
that, maybe just show they still had
something left.
The site, itself, had been part
of the kingdom of Naples since the middle
ages. The fortress acquired its massive
defensive configuration between 1565 and 1576
when the Kingdom of Naples was actually a
vice-realm of the Spanish. It had undergone
sieges before, one against French forces in
1557 who were waging war against the Spanish.
The fort withstood the siege. Another time was
against Napoleon's forces in 1806 (the fort
held out for 4 months before surrendering).
The fortress was a substantial structure. At
the time of the siege in March 1861, it was
the largest fortress in Italy and second in
Europe (after Hohensalzburg
in Salzburg, Austria). It was set atop a
rocky cliff and was about 500 meters long
and 45-50 meters wide. The total area was
25,000 sq. meters (a bit more than six
acres). It was well fortified with a
reputation for having withstood sieges
before. Nothing is immovable, and in this
case, the irresistible force was a strong
attacking army, but even they didn't take it
easily. The Piemontese forces had started
the siege in late October of 1860, even
before the siege of Gaeta had begun. All in
all, the defenders held out for 200 days
before giving up on March 20, 1861, seven
days after the "last stand" at Gaeta was
over and three days after their kingdom had
been declared defunct by the proclamation of
the existence of a united Italy.
Details of the siege itself are
relatively straightforward. The attacking
Piemontese forces had over 1000 men. There
were 500 defenders. Two to one is an
advantage but it's not overwhelming in an
uphill attempt to take a well-fortified
position. Many other things come into play.
That attackers had superior (that is, longer
range) artillery. Psychologically, other
Bourbon garrisons were surrendering as the
Piemontese push increased; the fall of the
capital city to Garibladi in September
certainly hadn't helped; and, very telling,
some of the attackers were ex-Bourbon
military who had already gone over to the
forces of unification. The Risorgimento
(the move to unify Italy) was, indeed, a
popular cause, even in many parts of the
south. In any event, artillery shelling of
the fortress started in late October, 1860.
There were a few breaks for truce talks, but
no results. There was really nothing to
negotiate. With the fall of Gaeta, and the
abdication and flight of the king of Naples,
Francis II, it really was over. The holdout
garrison of Civitella del Tronto was now
isolated. On February 15, two days after the
fall of Gaeta, Piemontese forces opened up
with a ferocious artillery bombardment of
the already badly damaged fortress. Still no
white flag. On February 17, with the
Civitella siege still going on, Victor
Emanuel was crowned king of Italy in Torino.
Attackers finally gained entrance to the
fortress and brought the message that Gaeta
really had fallen and that their own Bourbon
king Francis bade them to lay down their
arms. Some
defenders surrendered. Others viewed
it as a trick. Fighting continued. On
February 20 at 11 a.m. Major Raffaele
Tiscar, now commander of the fortress of
Civitella del Tronto, finally ran up the
white flag. The 291 surviving defenders were
taken prisoner. At 5 p.m. the flag of the
House of Savoy, rulers of Piedmont-Sardinia,
was raised over the fortress.
The defence of the fortress of Civitella del
Tronto was generally viewed as an honorable
one, even by the forces of unification.
Futile but honorable. Even that grudging
respect didn't last long. The forces of new
Italy set about destroying the defensive
works of the fortress by point-blank
artillery fire, reducing many of the
structures to absolute rubble. This was a
warning to the renegade
"bandits" (who would resist
unification for much of the rest of the
decade) roaming the hills. The fortress lay
in ruins for a century. It wasn't until
after WWII that the Italian economic miracle
set its sights on restoring the structure.
Today, all of it is clean and much is
restored so as to be visited. The fortress
houses a Museum of Weapons and Ancient Maps,
opened in 1988.