The unification of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861 and the subsequent invasion of the Roman capital in 1870 sparked opposition from Church authorities critical of the termination of Papal sovereignty, reinforcing anti-clerical and secularist sentiment among many royal political leaders. Here the manner in which the religious city of Rome was remade into a modern liberal capital is addressed by considering the competing French and British models of urbanism and conservation operative during the late nineteenth-century alongside the governing policies of Pope Pius IX and the later Risorgimento initiatives of successive Destra, Sinistra, and Giolittian parliaments. Functioning as a backdrop for an analysis of the policies of the Risorgimento king and his government, the Corso Vittorio Emanuele II is explored in respect to the Development Plans of 1873 and 1883, a selection of unofficial counterproposals, and the official Variant of 1886. The conclusion demonstrates that an Italian affinity for British political and conservation models resulted in a decisively modern approach to urbanism and a surprisingly respectful treatment of sacred space.
