Filippo Grimani

Filippo Grimani in 1902

Filippo Grimani (born June 4, 1850 in Venice , † December 5, 1921 in Rome ) was Mayor of Venice from November 15, 1895 to October 25, 1919, where he was known as the "golden mayor". He led a moderately conservative government in close collaboration with investors and industrialists as well as the clergy. In his time the municipality of Venice was expanded, the separation of the industrialized mainland and the tourist core city finally became the guideline of politics. Davide Giordano followed him in 1920.

Life

Grimani was born as the son of the Venetian patrician Pietro Luigi Grimani (del ramo di S. Luca) in Venice, ie he belonged to the branch (ramo) of the Grimani from the San Luca district. His mother was Elena Milissinò , who came from Padua and was also noble. His older sisters were Andriana and Cornelia. After the early death of his wife, Filippo Grimani's father remarried. With Regina Avogadro he fathered two sons named Giovanni Andrea Paolo and Dioniso Teodoro. Despite the lucrative marriage to Andriana Papafava (1796), which brought in 50,000 ducats, his father's father had to sell the Palazzo di S. Luca on the Grand Canal to the city in 1805 . The picture collection was also scattered during the economically difficult decades of the French and Austrian occupation.

In 1818 the von Rialto family moved to S. Tomà, where they bought the Palazzo Civran .

Palazzo Civran-Grimani

After classical studies Filippo Grimani received his doctorate in law from the University of Padua in 1873 . He aspired to a career as a diplomat, but had to devote himself to the administration of the family property after the death of his father. So he became consigliere in Mira with its little more than 7,000 inhabitants , where his family maintained old properties. In Mirano he bought the property of the Boldù family and in 1880 a villa from the 18th century. On October 26, 1886 he was elected mayor there and in 1889 he represented the place in the provincial assembly.

In 1893 he was elected to the city council of Venice and so he gave up the mayor's office on October 15th. Although he was not on the line of the mayor Riccardo Selvatico , he supported the Biennale di Venezia , of which he was president from 1897 to 1914. He managed to win over the Liberals without giving up Catholic support. At the same time he was supported in a massive campaign by the director of the Gazzetta di Venezia , Conte F. Macola.

After his election, Catholic dominance revived in the school, as did the celebrations, which the secular Selvatico government had little appreciated and abolished. These were above all the Festa della Salute and the Festa del Redentore , which, in addition to strongly religious accents, also contained conservative memories of the Republic of Venice . He was supported in this by the historian Pompeo Molmenti, along with numerous other exponents of the Church and the moderate liberals .

On August 3, 1895, Dante Di Serego Alighieri , who had been mayor from 1879 to 1888, was re-elected, but waived because of illness. Instead he chose Grimani as assessore Anziano , who was then elected mayor on November 15, 1895. He was also able to win the elections of August 5, 1899 and October 6, 1902, as well as those of August 5, 1905, July 6, 1910 and finally July 15, 1914. On October 25, 1919, Grimani resigned after 24 years in office.

His government often took on dirigistic, occasionally authoritarian traits, disregarding resistance to his industrialization plans or the expansion of the glamorous baths on the Lido . In religious education, too, which was supposed to be voluntary, he ensured that morning prayer was again part of the compulsory program in all schools. The cooperation with the clergy, especially with the patriarch, was correspondingly close .

As far as possible he withdrew the political mandate from the workers' organizations and interfered in labor disputes. On September 19, 1904, there was a general strike in which communication with the mainland was broken, the lighting failed, ambulances had to be postponed and the food supply collapsed. Even the churches were closed. Grimani blamed Giovanni Giolitti for the escalation in an open letter.

Apart from such acute situations, Grimani tended to be more paternalistic , for example when he wanted to ensure healthy houses. In Cannaregio and Madonna dell'Orto the new settlements were called "case Grimani", and settlements arose on the Giudecca , on Sant'Elena , in Dorsoduro , in Castello and on the Lido . However, emigration increased. The commission established in 1897 was converted into a semi-public institution in 1910, from which the Istituto autonomo case popolari emerged. In addition to the Biennale, he implemented the second major project of his predecessor.

When the Markus Tower collapsed in 1902 , it was deliberately rebuilt in the same place in its old form over the next ten years (even if only externally). The reconstruction of the fish market, the Pescheria , in Gothic forms was also on this line. In addition, many aristocratic families found themselves in an economically untenable situation, so that they could not maintain their palaces. Other families died out. As a result, the commune inherited a number of palazzi, such as Ca 'Pesaro in 1899 , where an exhibition was held for the first time in 1908.

Grimani mostly relied on private companies, but less so in health care and transport. In 1905 the operation of the steamships on the canals, the vaporetti , was communalized. On the other hand, the gas and water supply were placed in the hands of French private companies, the Compagnie des eaux pour l'étranger and the Compagnie du gaz de Venise . Edison took part in the Società per l'illuminazione pubblica di Venezia . Among the most important investors, alongside banks and savings banks, were P. Foscari and Giuseppe Volpi . The latter was supported in his plans for industrialization on the mainland both by the socialists, who hoped for an upswing of the labor movement, and by the conservatives, who hoped that Venice's core city would remain as it was.

Mestre , most of the lagoon , the Giudecca and, since 1884, the Lido belonged to Venice . Added to this were the fascists Pellestrina , Murano and Burano, as well as Favaro Veneto , Chirignago and Zelarino on the mainland between 1923 and 1926 as part of the Greater Venice plans . A corresponding agreement was signed on July 23, 1917 by the President of Consiglio P. Boselli and the Minister for Public Works I. Bonomi on the side of the state, and by Grimani and Volpi on the side of the commune and the Società Porto industriale di Venezia . The Lido became a luxury retreat for well-heeled tourists, starting with the construction of the Hotel des Bains (1900) and the Excelsior (1908), which the Compagnia italiana grandi alberghi (CIGA) had built. The mayor gave the CIGA a free hand because it was in the hands of Nicolò Papadopoli , Gastone Treves de 'Bonfili , Tito Braida and Giuseppe Volpi, which he supported .

In February 1917, Grimani was nominated as a senator. He sat on the supervisory boards of the Assicurazioni Generali and Credito italiano , played important roles in various railway companies, as well as in electricity suppliers such as the Società elettrica per il Porto industriale di Venezia . He also belonged to the Ateneo veneto , but he was not admitted to the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti .

In June 1914, the socialists won a great election victory. During the First World War , the mayor gained considerable popularity again through his permanent presence, but in 1919 he resigned after the victory of the socialists. His paternalistic system was no longer compatible with that of the socialists, and certainly not with the nationalistic and racist system of the fascists under Pietro Marsich , who flirted with the clergy. In 1920 the doctor Davide Giordano became mayor of one of the first clerical-fascist coalitions in Italy.

Since 1875 Grimani was married to Enrichetta Dubois de Dunilac, who gave birth to three sons, Enrico Maria and Marino, as well as the eldest, Pier Luigi, who died in 1913.

Filippo Grimani died on December 5, 1921, of an attack in the Hotel des Princes in Rome after a Senate session on the night of November 28th to 29th, 1921.

In 1926 a primary school called Scuola Elementare Filippo Grimani was established in Marghera .

literature

• Maurizio Reberschak: Filippo Grimani e la nuova Venezia , in: Storia di Venezia dalle orgini alla caduta della Serenissima , vol. 9.1: L'Ottocento 1797-1918 , edited by Stuart Woolf, Rome 2002, pp. 323-347.
• Michele Gottardi: GRIMANI, Filippo , in: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani , vol. 59 (2002).