Cesare Battisti, a Trentino geographer, journalist, socialist politician and irredentist, now rests in a mausoleum above Trento
Cesare Battisti was born on 4th February, 1875 in Trento, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. As an Italian irredentist, he dedicated his life to nationalist ideology. He strove to detach Trentino from Austria-Hungary and annex it to Italy (which had been unified in 1861), while also advocating for the region's administrative autonomy.
In 1898 he graduated from the Faculty of Literature in Florence with an important thesis on Trentino's geography. Afterwards, he conducted geographical and natural science studies and published several volumes on Trentino. From a young age, Cesare Battisti was also politically active, especially as a socialist and irredentist. In 1911 he became a member of the Viennese Parliament and from then on fought for the administrative autonomy of Trentino and for an Italian university in Trieste - at that time the most important trading port of the Habsburg Monarchy.
As director of the socialist newspapers in Trento, he supported the entry of the Kingdom of Italy into the First World War in 1914. Then, in 1915, when Italy joined in, Battisti signed up as a volunteer for the Alpine Corps. He was captured by the Austro-Hungarian Imperial Militia and executed as a traitor in the Castello del Buonconsiglio in Trento on 12th July, 1916.
Cesare Battisti is today considered a national hero and one of the most important figures of the Italian irredentism. For his service on the battlefield and his heroism, he was posthumously awarded the Medaglia d'Oro al Valor Militare (Gold Medal for Military Valour).
