qsy-complains-a-lot:echiromani:Embedded in the marble steps of the Galleria Colonna is this French c
qsy-complains-a-lot:echiromani:Embedded in the marble steps of the Galleria Colonna is this French cannonball, fired off from the Janiculum Hill during the tumult of the short-lived revolutionary Roman Republic of 1849.Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte as the first president of the French Republic should have been in theory an ally of Rome, but he was pressured by the conservative party which had been responsible for his election to put the Pope back in power. More than ten thousands French soldiers and several thousands more Spanish troops laid siege to the city, which eventually had to capitulate.One of its military leader, Garibaldi, fled to San Marino to continue the resistance, and likewise French troops stayed in garrison to protect the papacy until they were recalled in the months leading to the Franco-Prussian war. This allowed some 21 years later for Garibaldi to come back and retake the city, completing the Risorgimento. -- source link