Timeline / 1820 to 1840 / / 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 : 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 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 , 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 of 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 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 ). 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.