Nunziatella military academy

The Nunziatella Military School of Naples, Italy, founded November 18, 1787 under the name of Royal Military Academy (it.: Reale Accademia Militare), is the oldest Italian institution of military education among those still operating. Its building, familiarly called "Red Manor" (it.: Rosso Maniero), and the adjacent church of the Santissima Annunziata, is an architectural monument of the city of Naples.

Located in Pizzofalcone in via Generale Parisi, 16, it has been a place of high military and civilian training since its foundation, and had among its teachers and students the likes of Francesco de Sanctis, Mariano d'Ayala, Carlo Pisacane, Guglielmo Pepe, Enrico Cosenz and even a king of Italy, Vittorio Emanuele III, and a Viceroy of Italian East Africa, Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta.

Among the many alumni of prestige, high degrees of the Armed Forces, including one Director of the European Union Military Committee, two Chiefs of Defence Staff, five Army Chiefs of Staff, two Navy Chiefs of Staff, one Air Chief of Staff, three Commanders General of the Guardia di Finanza (and three Vicecommanders), three Commanders General of the Carabinieri (and eighteen Vicecommanders) and two Directors-General of the Information Services need to be cited. As for the civilian alumni, three Prime Ministers, 14 Ministers, 13 senators and 11 deputies of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the Kingdom of Italy and the Italian Republic, a President of the Constitutional Court, a five-time candidate for the Nobel Prize for Physics, as well as representatives of absolute importance of the cultural, political and professional Italian and international landscape, including a winner of the prestigious Sonning Prize, awarded to the most important European intellectuals, have to be remembered.

The flag of the school is decorated with a Gold Cross of Merit of the Carabinieri, and a bronze medal for the Valor of the Army. Its former students have earned 38 gold medals, 147 silver medals and 220 bronze medals for military valor; 2 gold medals for civil valor; and numerous other awards for valor. A total of 21 of them are decorated with the Military Order of Italy and 56 of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.

For its role in the last three centuries "in the field of higher education, as an academic, social and economic motor for Italy and all the Mediterranean countries linked to it", on February 22, 2012, it was declared "Historical and cultural heritage of the Mediterranean countries" by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean. The School is also the winner of the Cypraea Prize for Science (1994) and the Mediterranean Award awarded by the Fondazione Mediterraneo (2012).The way as youth is here educated has no equal in the whole of Europe. Philosophy, patriotism, and experience would not have been able to conceive or carry more noble institution to form the temperament, reason, heart and all the knowledge required to military.

History

The originating military institutes

The origins of the Nunziatella Military Academy should be traced back to the work of reorganization of the armed forces of the Kingdom of Naples, advocated by the statesman Bernardo Tanucci and implemented by Charles of Bourbon. Under his guidance was in fact identified for the first time the need to create ad hoc institutions for the training of officers of various specialties: this initiative was necessary to free the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies from subjection to the Kingdom of Spain, ruled by Philip V of Spain, father of Charles, and to limit the ambitions of his mother Elisabetta Farnese.

The initiative of Charles of Bourbon had its first result in the foundation of the Real Academia de los Guardias Estendartes de las Galeras (December 5, 1735), devoted to the training of naval officers: this institution, which has the primacy of the oldest Navy Academy in Italy, was initially housed in a building of the docks area in Naples, but then moved, after only two months, in the Palazzo Trotti, in the immediate vicinity of the royal palace of Naples and the Dominican Church of the Holy Spirit, in the area later occupied by the palace of the Prefecture.

After a brief and not very profitable experience of a military school, located in the Maddalena town district, it was founded the Academy of Artillery (1745), for whose organization was called the mathematician Nicola Antonio De Martino, who was serving in Spain as Embassy secretary. The new Academy was installed in the Palace of Panatica, in Saint Lucia town district, and provided with a solid educational program, both theoretical and practical: there were, in fact, taught mathematics, physics, design and fencing, while the practical exercises were carried out at Molosiglio, in the docks area and at Fort Vigliena. The students were officers and cadets of the Academy of Artillery, for which attendance was mandatory; officers and cadets of other specialties, and noblemen who had passed an entrance examination were also admitted to the class. In accordance with the guidelines of the time, the programs of the Academy were specifically focused on math and science. The same Charles of Bourbon stated in the edict for the academy's founding that, "Albeit we have with any of our other royal orders and instructions provided specifically trained to make full use of our subjects sull'onorevole militia, although not of wherein in less expedient for the preservation of our states, the shine and the glory of our arms, the body of the militia remains Yea well disciplined and taught in mathematics, science which principally depend on the math and science of our rulers."

The foundation

Parisi, in his reforms, changed the site from the buildings and convents of the Panatica Palace to the site of the Jesuit novitiate of Pizzofalcone. The complex was built thanks to the generous donations of noblewomen Anna Mendoza, Marchioness della Valle and Countess of Sant'Angelo dei Lombardi, and Delia Sanseverino, Countess of Briatico. The donation was 19,500 ducats, divided in twelve years. The novitiate was opened on 8 September 1587, and had greeted the seminarians previously housed the novitiate of Nola. Along with the former seminary, they were granted an architectural jewel of the Neapolitan Baroque, the attached Church of the Nunziatella, so called to distinguish it from the larger Basilica of the Santissima Annunziata. Built in 1588, the church had been heavily remodeled in 1736 by the Ferdinando Sanfelice; and embellished with frescoes by Francesco De Mura, Paolo De Matteis, Ludovico Mazzanti and Pacecco De Rosa, as well as the splendid altar built by Giuseppe Sammartino.

The Nunziatella Military Academy was founded November 18, 1787 with the name of Royal Military Academy, by a special order of king Ferdinand IV. This document contained guidelines for the education of the students, in particular calling on officers and instructors to attend to "... the knowledge of the temperaments, inclinations and aptitudes of the students in order to be able to stimulate curiosity and increase the attention, talents and faculties, and finally, instilling in them a capacity for judgment". Similarly, it was felt necessary to introduce students to "mathematics ... and to firm up philosophical reasoning in young people and prepare them for the professions of science and to train them in the consciousness of their duties and the social and political system."

The first commander-in-chief of the Academy was Domenico della Leonessa, Marquis of Supino, who by a decree of 28 May 1787 was appointed by Minister John Acton and promoted to Field Marshal. Traditionally, however, the real flowering of Nunziatella is traced to the appointment in 1794 of Giuseppe Parisi as commander; the street where the school is located is still named after him.

La Nunziatella was quickly recognized as a major military academy, and Giuseppe Maria Galanti writes in 1792:

The way youth is educated here has no equals in the whole of Europe. No philosophy, patriottism, experience could have either conceived or built a nobler institution for growing character, reason, heart and every knowledge needed by soldiers.

The Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946)

Upon the fall of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, with the surrender of the fortress of Civitella, 3,684 officers were on active duty in the army. Of these 341 artillery officers and 215 Engineering officers came from the Nunziatella.

Although it had proved, since its inception, to be a "seedbed of good specialist officers", the Nunziatella followed the fate of so many institutions of the former Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and by decree of Victor Emmanuel II of 4 May 1861 it was transformed from academia to military school of the Army: this operation provided that it was intended to prepare young people for life weapons, in view of their admission to the Academy of artillery and engineering of Turin and at the School of Infantry and Cavalry of Modena. The new regulations of the renamed Military College of Naples was established by a decree of 6 April 1862 and provided for the admission of boys between thirteen and sixteen who had completed his high school studies. The total number of students was fixed at a maximum value of 250 units.

Among others, Congressman Giuseppe Ricciardi in 1861 complained in Parliament that act, by inserting it into a broader discontent for the abolition of other cultural institutions Neapolitan; and a few years later, in 1870, was the former student and professor Mariano d'Ayala to fight in the Parliament of the Kingdom of Italy against the new threat of suppression.

Nevertheless, the Nunziatella made a major contribution to the training of managerial staff of the Army, so that the three former students Enrico Cosenz (1882–1893), Domenico Primerano (1893–1896) and Alberto Pollio (1908–1914) they were respectively the first, second and fourth Army Chief of Staff.

The attitude of distrust of senior management against the former army of the Two Sicilies and the Nunziatella went through was mitigated over the years, so much so that in 1881 the fifteen-years-old designated heir to the throne of Italy, Vittorio Emanuele III, was admitted as a Nunziatella student. The king always retained a strong attachment to the Nunziatella and participated personally in the celebrations for the 150th anniversary of its foundation.

Colonial wars

The latter part of the nineteenth century, and similar to what already done by other European powers, the Kingdom of Italy was engaged in a colonial policy that saw this long in Ethiopia and Eritrea.

The colonial period saw alumni participate in operations in Africa and among the fallen in this period remembers the captain Andrea De Benedictis, was killed in 1887 during the battle of Dogali; and on 26 January 1891 a plaque was dedicated to him in the Great Courtyard of the Nunziatella. This period was also of great importance for the history of the school, mainly as a result of the disastrous Battle of Adwa on 1 March 1896: it was during this fight, in fact, that was assigned to a former student the first gold medal for military valor after the Italian unification. The artillery captain Eduardo Bianchini, son of the eminent economist of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies Luigi Bianchini, sacrificed himself in place with its mountain battery to allow the Italian main force to fold in front of the enemy offensive from Adwa.

Awards

Military awards

"And as in all human things the facts explain better than any theory from which they come, we have to say that living by the rules expertly dictated by Parisi, it came out of those walls the most beautiful flower of noble youth, which, well accustomed to all manner of doctrine, came soon after with a reputation for bravery"

(Mariano d'Ayala, Napoli militare, 1847)

On 29 November 2007 to the Flag of the School was awarded the Bronze Medal of Army Valor with the following citation:

"Prestigious training institute whose values are based on the ancient roots of more than two centuries of incessant activity, constantly working with the sublime spirit of sacrifice and honor never tarnished by the succession of historical events. Forge of noble minds, it carried out an irreplaceable teaching action and example for many young people there trained, with a profound awareness of civil society, to the life and weapons. It was clear testimony illustrious alumni who, with deep love of country, honored themselves and Italy. The heritage of sacrifice and glory offered to the country by the students of the "Nunziatella", exalted by two decorated the Military Order of Italy, 38 gold medals for Valour and numerous silver and bronze medals for Valour, sealed the high educational value and the very high institutional contribution. Shining example of the spirit of service to the Country, the Military School "Nunziatella" bore out the luster enjoyed and helped to raise the prestige of the Armed Forces in joint and national level". Naples, 1787-2007"

On November 17, 2012, the Flag of the institute was awarded the Gold Cross of Merit of the Carabinieri with the following citation:

"Ancient and prestigious training institute of the Italian Army, elected guardian of military virtues, preparing for life and weapons generations of young people, educating them to the cult of duty and honor. In its centuries-long history, the Military School Nunziatella rooted the fruitful seed of the unconditional love of country and of the highest ethical values in the ranks of students placed themselves at the service of the common good in the ranks of the Carabinieri, and offered unparalleled tests unquestioned loyalty and admirable courage, witnessed by countless individual awards including five gold medals for Valour. Forge of minds and generous source of the noblest virtues, the Nunziatella is ideal reference for young minds and deserved the unanimous applause of the national community, thus helping to enhance the prestige of the Carabinieri and the armed forces. Naples, 1787-2012"

Coat of arms

The blazon of the official coat of arms is as follows:

"Fine: the first gold of the foal cheerful black; in the second of the red-skinned hand coming out of the right, holding a dagger of silver manicata gold mail post, resting on an open book to the natural; the blue band, on the partition, loaded from three cornflowers gold.

The turreted crown is of gold."

A golden ribbon, under the shield of the list, bears the motto I prepare to life and weapons.

Symbology

Gold and red are the colors of the city of Naples and the hoisted black horse also refers to it. The blue band with three lilies of gold refers to the Bourbons of Naples, founders of the School. The armed wing of dagger on the open book refers to the motto of the school.

The mottos of the Nunziatella

Heraldic motto is for any institution or military unit sign and figure of its identity, together with the coat of arms; the variations of the mottos of the Nunziatella also detect historical and cultural changes underwent in individual historical periods:

1787-1805 and 1816-1860 - Arma, viri, ferte arma: the motto, used in the Bourbon period, is based on the Aeneid of Virgil (Verg. Aen. 2, 668); from the original classic (Arma, viri, ferte arma; vocat lux ultima victos, "Weapons, men, carry weapons; the last light calls the vanquished") ruled by Aeneas after witnessing the massacre carried out Pirro in Priam's palace. Its meaning is an invitation to die there with weapons in hand.

Эх сурвалж: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)