The Mistakes of Our History: "Tear Down the Statue of Carlo Felice"
The “re-readings” of Francesco Cesare Casula, professor of Medieval History. The facts and the characters, from the Kingdom of Sardinia to the modern age
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If I were the Mayor of Cagliari, I would listen to my almost namesake Francesco Casula, bitter enemy of the Savoy, and I would knock down the statue of Carlo Felice to put in its place that of Gigi Riva in a bicycle kick, because he was the only “Sardinian” (from Leggiuno only because the stork took the wrong route) who made us become top of the class in a peninsular Italy. And who is not with me: «… plague he cuolga!», as Amedeo Nazzari from Pirrese exclaimed in the famous film “La cena delle beffe”.
Carlo Felice, state road 131 – Jokes aside (but not too much), Carlo Felice was truly one of our most hated monarchs, who is still talked about only because the most important road on the island is named after him and celebrated with a statue in Piazza Yenne: the Cagliari-Porto Torres, erroneously indicated as “state road 131” while, for scientific history (and not for the convenient Italian one) it should be “state road no. 1” as it is the first road of the state initially called the Kingdom of Sardinia, then the Kingdom of Italy, today the Italian Republic.
Carlo Felice and Sardinia – Summarizing the figure of Carlo Felice, the last of the Savoys (his successors are Carignano, Savoy by adoption) is very difficult, and I won’t even try. I will only list his repressive Sardinian policy, carried out between 1799 and 1806, all aimed at affirming the rule of law.
The “ferocious” Carlo Felice – As soon as he took office, first as viceroy, he felt the duty to ensure public order on the island, in compliance with authority. Therefore, he used special courts, summary procedures and police measures. A conspiracy hatched by a certain lawyer Serra di Sinnai and a certain Pasquale Bartolo, in September 1799, ended with two death sentences. Severe punishments were inflicted on the friar Gerolamo Podda who had created a group of pro-French Jacobins in his convent. Life imprisonment was handed down to the hero Vincenzo Sulis, who had gone from enthusiasm to discontent, accused of high treason and locked up in the Sperone tower in Alghero. Sixteen sentences to the gallows were pronounced in 1800 when a revolt broke out in Thiesi, provoked by the oppression of the feudal lord Antonio Manca, Duke of Asinara. In 1802, in Gallura, there was another attempt by the notary Francesco Cilocco from Cagliari and the priest Francesco Sanna Corda from Torralbese to proclaim a Sardinian Republic dependent on France. The repression was rapid and violent. Cilocco was captured, lynched, whipped and hanged, Sanna fell in the firefight with the royal soldiers. In July 1802, Domenico Pala, condemned in absentia the previous year, was executed.
We Sardinians and the Monarchy – In conclusion, why then solemnly magnify him with a statue in Piazza Yenne in Cagliari? Perhaps because we Sardinians are unrepentant conservatives, tied by habit to “su connottu”, to the known, to what we have always known, even if it was the repressive monarchy. Remember that we have defended our sovereigns over time, even when in the rest of Europe they were deposed with revolutions and guillotined, and that, arriving in our days, on June 2, 1946, in the popular referendum that gave us the Republic, we voted for the Monarchy.
And herein lies one of the most deplorable sins of our history.
