Giovanni Montiroli e l'esperienza della Repubblica Romana

In 1849, Giovanni Montiroli, just over thirty years old, took part in the defence of the Roman Republic as a lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers, overseeing the fortifications along the stretch of walls between Porta Cavalleggeri and Porta Castello. The Republic, proclaimed on February 9, 1849, in the wake of the 1848 revolutions, was soon overwhelmed by French intervention led by General Oudinot and backed by Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. Despite an initial success in repelling the attack of April 30, Rome fell on July 1, 1849; Pius IX returned the following year and initiated a policy of restoration. Promoted to the rank of captain during the siege, Montiroli was expelled from the army on September 5, 1849, for refusing to join the French forces, thereby forfeiting all rights accrued through his years of service. In the years that followed, he devoted himself to architecture, collaborating with Luigi Canina and keeping his political views private. Only after Italian unification did he request reinstatement: in 1871 he received two medals for his role in the defence of Rome and in the wars of independence, and in 1879, by decree of King Umberto I, he regained the rank of captain in the reserve, as a symbolic redress for the exclusion he had suffered in 1849.