Capture of Rome

A breach beside Porta Pia

Italian artillery opened fire before dawn on 20 September 1870 at several points in Rome's defences, with the principal attack directed at the Aurelian Walls between Porta Pia and Porta Salaria.

The guns opened a breach near Porta Pia, and mixed units of infantry and Bersaglieri went through it. The gate itself was not smashed down, and the feather-hatted Bersaglieri did not enter alone — line regiments were with them.

A white flag at ten

Pius IX had ordered only enough resistance to demonstrate that the occupation happened by force, and the papal defenders showed a white flag at about ten in the morning.

The papal commander Hermann Kanzler and the Italian commander Raffaele Cadorna concluded capitulation terms that afternoon at Villa Albani, reported as signed at about half past five.

Vittorio Vidotto's later reconstruction counts 48 Italian dead and 141 wounded against 19 papal dead and 68 wounded; totals differ between accounts because some record only deaths on the day itself.

Rome, minus the Leonine City

Italian troops occupied the city but initially excluded the Leonine City around the Vatican under the capitulation arrangements. At sunset the area around St. Peter's lay outside the occupation terms.

Legal annexation had not happened either. It followed the plebiscite of 2 October and the royal decree of 9 October, and the government remained in Florence.