Republic of Alba
Encyclopedia
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
municipality
Municipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...
proclaimed on April 26, 1796, in Alba, northern Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, when the town was taken by the French army
French Army
The French Army, officially the Armée de Terre , is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces.As of 2010, the army employs 123,100 regulars, 18,350 part-time reservists and 7,700 Legionnaires. All soldiers are professionals, following the suspension of conscription, voted in...
.
The municipality had a very short life, because with the Armistice of Cherasco on April 28, king Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia
Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia
Victor Amadeus III was King of Sardinia from 1773 until his death. Although he was politically conservative, he carried out numerous administrative reforms until declaring war on revolutionary France in 1792...
was given back the civil control of all Piedmont
Piedmont
Piedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,402 square kilometres and a population of about 4.4 million. The capital of Piedmont is Turin. The main local language is Piedmontese. Occitan is also spoken by a minority in the Occitan Valleys situated in the Provinces of...
.
Lacking any effective control of its land, the municipality is remembered for two reasons, the first being the partisan Republic of Alba
Republic of Alba (1944)
The Republic of Alba was a short-lived state that existed from October 10 to November 2, 1944 in Alba, northern Italy, as a local resistance against Italian fascism during World War II. It was named after the Napoleonic Republic of Alba that existed between 1796 and 1801 in Piedmont.-See...
which took its name during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the second one is its flag, designed by the jacobin Juan Antonio Ranza, who said that the blue and red were for France while the orange is taken to the tree of the Piedmont's shield. The flag existed in both horizontal and vertical tricolour
Tricolour
A tricolour is a flag or banner more-or-less equally divided into three bands of differing colours...
versions, and it is used nowadays on some occasions by Region Piedmont
Piedmont
Piedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,402 square kilometres and a population of about 4.4 million. The capital of Piedmont is Turin. The main local language is Piedmontese. Occitan is also spoken by a minority in the Occitan Valleys situated in the Provinces of...
.