200th Birthday of Count Camillo Benso di Cavour

Portrait of the Italian statesman. On the left, the name "CAVOUR" and the Italian Republic monogram "RI" are engraved; on the right, the mint mark "R", the years "1810" and "2010", and the initials of artist Claudia Momoni "C.M.".

Few figures of the 19th century reshaped the political map of Europe as lastingly as Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour. As Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont, he skillfully played the interests of Europe's great powers off against one another and won France as an ally against Austria. The wars of 1859 and the subsequent annexations laid the foundation for a unified Italian nation-state. Cavour always thought in continental terms: he was convinced that a united Italy could only endure as a recognized player in the concert of powers, and he oriented himself toward the liberal constitutionalism of Western Europe.

In Italy itself, Cavour, alongside Giuseppe Garibaldi and Giuseppe Mazzini, is regarded as one of the three central fathers of the Risorgimento movement. While Mazzini embodied the republican ideal and Garibaldi brought military drive, Cavour was the realpolitiker: diplomat, economic reformer, and parliamentary tactician all in one. As publisher of the liberal newspaper Il Risorgimento and as architect of Piedmont's modern state administration, he created institutional foundations that shaped the later Kingdom of Italy. He died in 1861, just months after the proclamation of a united Italy that he had done so much to bring about. Italy honored his 200th birthday in 2010 with a commemorative issue.