Public Commemorations and Collective Memory in Venice, 1815-1915

This thesis demonstrates the ways in which Venetians negotiated their municipal identity during the nineteenth century through an engagement with their own distinct and unique past.It focuses on Venice's commemorative practices from the start of the second Austrian domination in 1815 until the advent of Italy's participation in World War One in 1915. It examines the circumstances in which public monuments and memorials were erected in the urban fabric by the city's middle classes. Spanning the most important events in the city's history following the collapse of the Republic of Venice in 1797, including the revolution of 1848-1849 situated between two periods of Austrian rule and Venice's inclusion in the Kingdom of Italy in 1866, this research explores how the city's history was visually represented in different political contexts. In short, it discusses how far Venice's imperial, republican past was accommodated in both the multi-ethnic Habsburg empire and the new Italian state.Building on theoretical frameworks concerning memory, identity and nationalism, this research is ultimately concerned with the relationship between cities and the nation, manifest in the commemoration of significant historical events and their protagonists. Often overlooked in the historiography of the Italian Risorgimento, this thesis demonstrates that it was the municipalism of the city which most ably contributed to the symbolic construction of the new state and the 'making of Italians' following the unification of Italy in 1861.