Alberto Cavalletto

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Monument to Alberto Cavalletto by Augusto Sanavio, 1902
Via Cavalletto
Padua, May 2025

“Alberto Cavalletto (Padua, 28 November 1813 – Padua, 19 October 1897) was an Italian politician. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1860 and a member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Kingdom of Italy from 1864 to 1865 and from 1868 to 1892. In that year he was appointed senator of the Kingdom of Italy. He was born in Bassanello, a riverside suburb of Padua, on November 28, 1813, to Antonio Cavalletto and Maria Sandri. He graduated in hydraulic engineering from the University of Padua. He joined the ranks of the Liberals at a very young age, and in 1848 he fought in Vicenza as a major in the Brenta Bacchiglione Legion and played an active role in the defense of Venice. Arrested by the Austrian police in 1852, he was sentenced to death together with Tito Speri, Giovanni Malaman and other patriots, but obtained a commutation of the sentence to sixteen years of imprisonment, which was served in Josefstadt and Ljubljana. Released with the amnesty of 1856, he moved to Piedmont, where he continued his patriotic work in favour of the unification of Italy under the Savoy. From January 1859, Cavalletto became a key figure in the Central Political Committee of Veneto, created to coordinate the local secret committees that acted in the territory with propaganda actions against the Habsburg government. In the last years of Austrian domination in Veneto, Cavalletto was the instigator (or accomplice of the organisers) of various attacks and the throwing of ‘Orsini bombs’ against the houses of priests and private citizens accused of opposing unification. The Political Committee, of which the Paduan was secretary, was also responsible for financing protest demonstrations in Veneto and Friuli, characterised by the lighting of ‘Bengal fires’ and the display of tricolours.” (Alberto Cavalletto, Wikipedia)