Santore de Santarosa

The Count Santore of Santa Rosa was an Italian insurgent and a great philhellene who perished during the Greek war of Independence of 1821. Santarosa was born on 1783 at Savigliano, part of the Kingdom of Sardinia. After he completed his studies he joined the Italian army and took part in almost every battle against Napoleon’s armed forces in Italy. Finally after the fall of Piedmont he resigned from his military obligations. However, after the fall of Napoleon he was reinstated in the army and took part in the battle of Grenoble, where influenced by his own simple patriotic sentiment ignited the revolution of Piedmont against the Austrian rule. He served as a captain of the grenadiers and was later employed in the ministry of war. When his efforts failed he moved to France, Switzerland and finally London.

In London, he was approached by delegates of the philhellenic committee who invited him to join the Greek war of independence. He accepted with great enthusiasm and around December 1824 he arrived in Nafplio. From there he went to Aegina and finally Athens. There he had the chance to see all the antiquities that he so long admired but had not had the opportunity to see. Whenever he had the chance he would make passionate patriotic speeches that lifted the spirit of all the locals. Being a plain soldier bearing the name De Rossi he followed Kountouriotis and Alexandros Mavrokordatos in the battle Pylos and on the 20th of April 1825 he entered the fort of Neokastro. Being an experienced soldier he gave an order to repair some of the sections of the fort but his orders were not followed. On the 7th Anagnostaras fighting in the island of Sphacteria asked for enforcements from Neokastro. He was offered about 100 soldiers with De Rossi among them. When the next day Ibrahim pasha begun his attack again island of Sphacteria De Rossi was wounded critically but did not want to surrender to the enemy army. An Egyptian soldier murdered him and stole his personal belongings. His death became known when an Egyptian who served in the Egyptian fleet mentioned this fact in his diaries.

In honor of the heroic philhellene Santarosa after the passing of 100 years of his death on a monument was erected 1925 at Sphacteria in his honor and a road was named after him. In his birth town a marble statue was raised and he is regarded a national hero.