PONZA DI SAN MARTINO, Gustavo. – Born in Cuneo on 6 January 1810, died in Dronero on 6 September 1876.
Having entered the administrative career at a young age, by the time he was less than forty he was already a senior official at the Ministry of the Interior, and in 1849 he discharged the duties of Intendant (Prefect) of Genoa with great tact and energy during a period of unrest. Deputy and later Senator, he served as Minister of the Interior, Sardinian commissioner in Massa in 1859, and two years later Lieutenant General in Naples.
The most important event in P.’s life was the mission entrusted to him by Victor Emmanuel II in September 1870 to persuade Pius IX not to oppose the royal occupation of Rome. The author of the letter addressed to the Pope, he, as is well known, did not succeed in deflecting the Pontiff from at least the formal defence of his legitimate rights, and a few days later the episode of the breach of Porta Pia occurred, that is, the use of force, which only apparently seemed to resolve the Roman Question.
PONZIANO, CEMETERY OF – Cemetery area and remains of the Basilica (4th century) – Rome, Cemetery of Ponziano.
In the last five years of his life, P. withdrew from active politics, devoting himself to philanthropic institutions, of which he energetically held the presidency in his native Piedmont. Sebastiano Tecchio eloquently commemorated him in the Senate session of 27 December 1876.