Francesco Daverio

Early years

Daverio was born in Varese on April 3, 1815, to the wealthy farmer Giovan Battista, and his wife, Maria Cerutti. He completed his pre-college studies in Parabiago and Varese.

He graduated on January 4, 1839, from the University of Pavia with a degree in Engineering and Architecture. He worked as an engineer at the Ponti engineering studio in Varese and at the prestigious Gerli engineering studio in Milan. He also was the director and superintendent of the assets of the noble Della Sala family of Varese. He worked for Ospedale Maggiore in Milan, where he also participated in the Five Days of Milan.

With Garibaldi

Daverio's first meeting with Garibaldi took place on August 13, 1848, at Castelletto sopra Ticino. Garibaldi, who had arrived a few months before via Nice and Uruguay, had started the Provisional Government of Lombardy, gathering 1300 volunteers to start an uprising in Varese.

On August 9, 1848, Austria and Piedmont had signed the Salasco Armistice, which Garibaldi found unacceptable. Garibaldi was waiting for aid from Switzerland; Mazzini had promised him guns and 180 men. Only Daverio, the 33-year-old engineer from Varese, had arrived. Mazzini had sent him as a guide.

The small army marched during the night from Castelletto sopra Ticino to Arona. Garibaldi seized the steamboats San Carlo and Verbano in the port, which had been used by the postal service on the lake. They also seized nine other boats on the lake. They lade small pieces of artillery, 1,286 rations of bread and twenty bags of rice and landed in Luino at eight o'clock in the evening of August 14 with 800 men.

The campaign lasted fifteen days and, after the riots of Luino on August 15 and Morazzone on the 26th, revolution was in the air. Of the 800 men who had gone with him, only seventy followed Garibaldi to Switzerland. Daverio proved invaluable in guiding the retreat of the forces through the Campo dei Fiori in Brusimpiano, past the shores of Lake Lugano, and out of the country. With a long trip past Buguggiate, Capolago, Varese, Morosolo, Casciago, Velate, St. Ambrose, Bregazzana, the German Alps, and Borgnana Cavagna, the patrol arrived in the late evening of August 27 at Casamora, an isolated area between Brusimpiano and Porto.

A plaque is still visible from the road along the lake showing the house Garibaldi, exhausted from the long march, slept in. The next night, Brusimpianesi barges carried a troop thinned to about thirty volunteers, defying the Austrian gunboat patrols. Garibaldi went to Agno and then Lugano. Those who had lost him would eventually reach Switzerland in small groups. Garibaldi's volunteers were not yet ready to take Italy.

In Lugano, Daverio wasted no time and got back in touch with his contacts from the uprising in Lombardy. After the riots erupted in the fall in Val d'Intelvi, he left Locarno on October 31. In the evening, he landed in Germignaga, on the Lombardy side of Lake Maggiore, where it reaches Luino. He was greeted by the giunta nazionale d’insurrezione. Two Austrian columns rushed from Varese, the uprising failed, and Daverio retreated on the lake from which he came, this time destined for Piedmont.

1849 and death

Six months later, he reappeared in Velletri. He died with weapons in hand on June 3, 1849, defending Rome at the Casino dei quattro venti. Almost at the same time, another Varese Enrico Dandolo died at the Palazzo Corsini. Another young patriot and Varese native, Emilio Morosini, would also die on the Janiculum in June.

Legacy

The Varese technical institute for surveyors is named after him. There are streets named after him in Rome, Varese, and Milan.