Guglielmo Pepe Bust

Guglielmo Pepe’s military career connects two widely separated centers of the Risorgimento: Naples and Venice. Born in Calabria in 1783, he served through the upheavals of the Napoleonic period and later became a leader of the constitutional movement in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

In 1821 he opposed the Austrian intervention that restored absolute royal authority. Defeat forced him into exile. He used those years to write about military affairs and the organization of future insurrections.

When revolution returned in 1848, the Bourbon king sent him north with troops, then ordered their recall. Pepe stayed and took command of forces defending Venice against Austria. The decision placed commitment to the anti-Austrian struggle above obedience to his own monarch. He died in Turin in 1855. His bust recalls a career defined by failed campaigns, repeated exile, and the persistence of constitutional politics as much as by military command.