Rosa Vercellana, 1st Countess of Mirafiori and Fontanafredda (3 June 1833 – 26 December 1885), commonly known as ‘Rosina’ and, in
Piedmontese
Piedmontese (; autonym: or , in it, piemontese) is a language spoken by some 2,000,000 people mostly in Piedmont, northwestern region of Italy. Although considered by most linguists a separate language, in Italy it is often mistakenly reg ...
, as La Bela Rosin, was the
mistress and later wife of
Victor Emmanuel II
Victor Emmanuel II ( it, Vittorio Emanuele II; full name: ''Vittorio Emanuele Maria Alberto Eugenio Ferdinando Tommaso di Savoia''; 14 March 1820 – 9 January 1878) was King of Sardinia from 1849 until 17 March 1861, when he assumed the title o ...
,
King of Italy
King of Italy ( it, links=no, Re d'Italia; la, links=no, Rex Italiae) was the title given to the ruler of the Kingdom of Italy after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The first to take the title was Odoacer, a barbarian military leader ...
. Despite this, the
morganatic
Morganatic marriage, sometimes called a left-handed marriage, is a marriage between people of unequal social rank, which in the context of royalty or other inherited title prevents the principal's position or privileges being passed to the spous ...
status of her marriage meant that she was never recognized as Queen of Italy.
Life
She was born in
Nice
Nice ( , ; Niçard dialect, Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department in France. The Nice urban unit, agg ...
, then part of the
Kingdom of Sardinia
The Kingdom of Sardinia,The name of the state was originally Latin: , or when the kingdom was still considered to include Corsica. In Italian it is , in French , in Sardinian , and in Piedmontese . also referred to as the Kingdom of Savoy-S ...
, the youngest child of Giovanni Battista Vercellana and his wife, Maria Teresa Griglio. Four days later she was baptised as Maria Rosa Teresa Aloisia.
[‘Rosa Vercellana, the “Bela Rosin”’](_blank)
''La Veneria Reale'' (Consorzio di Valorizzazione Culturale “La Venaria Reale”). [Roberto Gervaso, ''La Bella Rosina, amore e ragion di stato in Casa Savoia'' (Milan: Bompiani 1991).]
Her father, from
Moncalvo
Moncalvo is a village and ''comune'' in the Province of Asti in the Italian region Piedmont, located about east of Turin and about northeast of Asti on the national road SS 547 which links Asti to Casale Monferrato and Vercelli. Historically i ...
in the
Province of Asti, had been a standard bearer in the Napoleonic Imperial Guard. After the fall of Napoleon, he was appointed an Officer in the King's Guards and commanded the Royal Garrison in the hunting estate of
Racconigi by 1847. There, while living with her family, the fourteen-year-old Rosa met Crown Prince
Victor Emmanuel.
Vercellana became his
mistress and later had two children by him.
Their affair caused a great scandal in 1849 when Victor Emanuel was crowned
King of Sardinia. When his Queen died in 1855, the King named Rosa Countess of
Mirafiori and
Fontanafredda
Fontanafredda (Standard Friulian: ;
Western Friulian: ; vec, Fontanafreda) is a ''comune'' (municipality) of about 12,000 inhabitants in Province of Pordenone, in Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, north-eastern Italy. The town hall is located in the ...
by royal decree in 1858. The King also recognized their two children and assigned them the surname Guerrieri.
, In 1860, Victor Emmanuel established her in a new residence in a restored castle of
La Mandria
La Mandria Regional Park is a park in the comuni of Venaria Reale and Druento, near Turin, northern Italy. Founded in 1978 by the regional council of Piedmont, it occupies a wide area between the Stura di Lanzo torrent and the north-western par ...
, near Venaria.
In 1864, the capital of Italy was moved from
Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...
to
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...
and Vercellana established herself there in the villa La Pietraia. Five years later the king fell gravely ill at
San Rossore, the royal estate near
Pisa. Fearing death, on 18 October 1869, he hurriedly married his mistress, in a purely religious ceremony which conferred no civil rights upon his wife. Telegrams to Rome followed, seeking papal benediction.
[‘Parco fluviale del Po tratto torinese: Punti di Interesse’](_blank)
Parks.it (Rome: Federazione Italiana Parchi e Riserve Natural).
A
civil ceremony A civil, or registrar, ceremony is a non-religious legal marriage ceremony performed by a government official or functionary. In the United Kingdom, this person is typically called a registrar. In the United States, civil ceremonies may be performed ...
was held in Rome eight years later in 1877. This was a
morganatic marriage
Morganatic marriage, sometimes called a left-handed marriage, is a marriage between people of unequal social rank, which in the context of royalty or other inherited title prevents the principal's position or privileges being passed to the spous ...
, so she was never made Queen and her children had no rights of succession to the throne.
Victor Emanuel died two months after the ceremony. Rosa Vercellana survived him by eight years, dying on 26 December 1885.
The mausoleum
As the Savoy family refused to allow Vercellana to be buried next to her husband in the
Pantheon, her children had a mausoleum built for her in a similar form (if on a smaller scale) in
Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...
, next to the road to the Castello di Mirafiori. The circular, copper-domed,
neoclassical monument, surmounted by a
latin cross
A Latin cross or ''crux immissa'' is a type of cross in which the vertical beam sticks above the crossbeam, with the three upper arms either equally long or with the vertical topmost arm shorter than the two horizontal arms, and always with a mu ...
and surrounded by a large park, was designed by
Angelo Dimezzi and completed in 1888.
‘Mausoleo della Bela Rosin’
''Piemontefeel'' (Regione Piemonte, 2005).
In 1970 it was purchased by the Turin city council from a descendant of Rosa Vercellana for the sum of 132 million lire. The park was opened to the public two years later but almost immediately the mausoleum was broken into and the remains of Vercellana and her descendants were mutilated by people searching for jewels. Further acts of vandalism took place over subsequent years and the structure fell into a state of dereliction. Major restoration work was carried out at the start of the twenty-first century and the park was re-opened to the public in 2005.
Issue
Victor Emmanuel and Rosa Vercellana's children were:
* Vittoria Guerrieri (2 December 1848 – 1905)William Addams Reitwiesner
William Addams Reitwiesner (March 8, 1954 – November 12, 2010) was an American genealogist who traced the ancestry of United States political figures, European royalty and celebrities.
Biography
Reitwiesner was born on 8 March 1954 in Havre de ...
‘The Descendants of Donna Vittoria Guerrieri (1848-1905)’
''wargs.com'' (William Addams Reitwiesner Genealogical Services)[Davide Shamà]
, ''Genealogie delle famiglie nobile italiani''. married Marchese
A marquess (; french: marquis ), es, marqués, pt, marquês. is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman w ...
Giacomo Spinola; had issue
* Emanuele Alberto Guerrieri (16 March 1851 – 23 December 1894), Count of Mirafiori and Fontanafredda married Bianca Enrichetta de Laderdel, daughter of Enrico de Laderdel, Count of Montecerboli and Annicie Belfort d'Antry, granddaughter of Federigo De Larderel, great-granddaughter of François Jacques de Larderel.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vercellana, Rosa
1833 births
1885 deaths
People from Nice
19th-century Italian people
19th-century Italian women
Mistresses of Italian royalty
Morganatic spouses
Victor Emmanuel II of Italy
Burials in Italy
Royal reburials