Timeline / 1820 to 1840 / ITALY / ALL THEMES
Date Country Theme
1820 Italy Rediscovering The Past
Edict by Cardinal Bartolomeo Pacca (1756–1844) dictating a comprehensive set of measures for the protection of cultural heritage in the Papal States: it is the first comprehensive law on the protection of cultural heritage issued in Italy and it will become a model for the other Italian states.
1820 - 1831 Italy Political Context
In 1820–21 and 1830–31, uprisings in different parts of Italy in favour of national unification and constitutional rule. They meet harsh repression.
1821 - 1822 Italy Cities And Urban Spaces
Giuseppe Valadier’s neoclassical project for the area next to the Rome northern gate is completed: it encompasses Piazza del Popolo and a new scenographic access to the Pincio hill.
1821 - 1822 Italy Fine And Applied Arts
Francesco Hayez paints I Vespri Siciliani, a historical painting expressing the new revolutionary and independence ideas that are taking root in Italy.
1822 Italy Rediscovering The Past
Inauguration of the Vatican Museums’ Braccio Nuovo (new wing), which completes the Chiaramonti Museum, whose construction had started in 1807, under the impulse of Pope Pius VII (Barnaba Chiaramonti). The Museum’s collection was set up by the sculptor Antonio Canova and included a large body of archaeological items.
1822 Italy Travelling
The Grand Duchy of Tuscany issues the first official ruling in Italy regarding “those who bathe in the sea in the open air”. Around that time, in Viareggio two wooden bathing establishments are built (one for men, the other for women). They are intended for seawater therapy.
1824 Italy Rediscovering The Past
In Turin, inauguration of the Royal Museum of Egyptian Antiquities. The Museum holding includes 5,268 Egyptian items brought to Italy by Bernardino Drovetti and bought by the King of Sardinia, Charles Felix of Savoy.
1825 - 1827 Italy Music, Literature, Dance And Fashion
Alessandro Manzoni (1785–1873) publishes I promessi sposi (The Betrothed), one of the most widely read Italian novels. His use of the Italian language stands out as a model.
1825 Italy Travelling Date Country Theme
More than half a million pilgrims visit Rome on the occasion of the Catholic “Holy Year”. In the Roman Catholic tradition, a Holy Year or Jubilee is a year of forgiveness of sins and reconciliation. Other Holy Years were celebrated in 1875 and in 1900. Rome always attracted Catholic pilgrims, especially during Holy Years.
1828 - 1829 Italy Rediscovering The Past
The Grand Duke of Tuscany Leopold II and Charles X of France finance the archaeological expedition to Egypt headed by Ippolito Rossellini and Jean-Francois Champollion.
1829 Italy Music, Literature, Dance And Fashion
Gioachino Rossini puts on stage in Paris his last opera, Guillaume Tell, featuring the fight of the Swiss people for freedom from Habsburg domination. He wrote 39 operas, characterised by a style aiming at pure musical beauty (bel canto). Great attention is paid to the sound of the voice and to technical virtuosity, with little emphasis on the different dramatic situations and to the personality of the different characters.
1831 Italy Political Context
Giuseppe Mazzini founds the republican movement for national unification, Giovine Italia (Young Italy).
1831 - 1835 Italy Music, Literature, Dance And Fashion
Once Rossini has left the stage, his place is taken by Gaetano Donizetti (1797– 1848) and Vincenzo Bellini (1801–1835). They introduce the new romantic spirit into melodrama and establish a tighter link between words and music. Their style is characterised by greater attention to the psychology of the different characters.
1835 - 1837 Italy Reforms And Social Changes
For the first time, a cholera epidemic hits Italy, killing more than 140,000 (26,000 in Palermo and 19,600 in Naples). Its causes remain unknown until the 1880s. Its spread is favoured by poor sanitation in urban centres. Cholera epidemics hit poor people especially and often occasion social unrest.
1837 - 1840 Italy Great Inventions Of The 19th Century
Naples and Turin are the first Italian towns to have gas street lightning.
1839 Italy Great Inventions Of The 19th Century
First Italian railway line (Napoli–Portici, 8 km). In the following years, other railway lines are inaugurated in other Italian states, e.g. Milano–Monza (1840), Pisa- Livorno (1844), Padova–Venezia (1846), Torino–Moncalieri (1848). Political fragmentation is an obstacle to the construction of long railway lines.