Francesco Morosini (1619-1694)

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Anatol
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Francesco Morosini (1619-1694)

Post by Anatol » Thu Jul 04, 2019 9:46 pm

Francesco Morosini (1619-1694) came from an old Venetian family - perhaps originally Hungarian - which had already become of some importance as early as the 10th century and included three other doges. Francesco was one of Venice’s most successful admirals and spent most of his life fighting against Turkish advances in the Aegean. After the defeat of the Turkish attack on Vienna in 1683 Venice joined the alliance against the Turks, with its fleet under the command of Morosini and the armies under Otto Wilhelm von Königsmark, a German general who was in Swedish service. The war initially went very well for Venice but, after the conquest of much of southern Greece, it ultimately bogged down and fell into a stalemate after Morosini became Doge in 1688.His fame reached such heights that he was given the victory title Peloponnesiacus, and was the first Venetian citizen to have a bronze bust placed during his own lifetime in the Great Hall, with the inscription Francisco Morosini Pеloponnesiaco, adhuc vivendi, Senatus. Morosini is, sadly, perhaps most famous for his role in the siege of Athens in 1687. During the siege of Athens in 1687 at the Morean War, his artillery turned the Parthenon from a functioning building to a simple ruin, and he personally oversaw the looting of some of the surviving sculptures. The Parthenon was used as a powder magazine by the Ottomans when on September 26, 1687, Morosini's cannon scored a direct hit on the edifice. An attaché of the Swedish field commander General Otto Wilhelm Königsmarck wrote later: "How it dismayed His Excellency to destroy the beautiful temple which had existed three thousand years!". By contrast Morosini, who was the commander in chief of the operation, described it in his report to the Venetian government as a "fortunate shot". When he conquered Acropolis in early 1688, Morosini tried to loot Athena's and Poseidon's horses and chariots from the west pediment of the Parthenon but the sculptures fell on the ground and smashed. This was the first documented attempt to remove sculptures from the pediments.
Italia 2019; B.
Source:https://www.cngcoins.com/Bid.aspx?Item_ID=195738. https://dir.md/wiki/Francesco_Morosini? ... ipedia.org
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