Sauro Nazario

Nazario Sauro (Koper, 20. 09. 1880 – Pula, Croatia, 10. 08. 1916)

 

Nazario Sauro was born in Koper to father Giacomo Sauro, who was of Roman origin, and mother Anna Depangher, a citizen of Koper. As the Sauro family resided near the Fish Market in the Bošadraga Quarter, Nazario was closely associated with the sea and seafaring from his early age. The sea was his passion, in fact. He loved sailing and rowing, and was a member of the famous Koper rowing club Libertas, with its basis in a former salt warehouse close to his home.

 

At the age of 24, he enrolled at the Maritime School in Trieste and successfully completed his studies with a diploma of a naval officer.

 

He was employed by different shipping companies: the Austro-American Company of the Cosulich Brothers, Lloyd Adriatico, and finally by the Koper Shipping Company (Compagnia di navigazione Capodistria). He commanded various well-known Koper steamships, such as Vittor Pisani, Cassiopea, Carpaccio, Oltra and San Giusto.

 

At that particular time, Koper lay within the borders of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, with the Koper Italians also advocating, particularly after 1866 the emergence and spreading of the irredentist movement, for the annexation of the Istrian Peninsula to Italy. Nazario Sauro, too, was a fervent irredentist, inspired by the reawakening ideas of Mazzini and the Italian National Socialists. Italian irredentism was not favourably disposed to Slavic population in Istria, as it considered it as pro-Austrian or nationally competitive. While carrying out his irredentist activities, Nazario also assisted Albanian rebels against Ottoman rule in Albania.

 

With the outbreak of the World War I and increasingly greater radicalization of nationalisms, particularly Italian nationalism, Nazario Sauro decided to leave Koper and to move to Venice, where he voluntarily joined the Italian Royal Navy with the rank of Lieutenant Commander and soon began to agitate for Italy to enter the war. In order not to be recognized by the Austrians, he changed his name to Nicoló Sambo. The Austro-Hungarian authorities therefore considered him a deserter and traitor as a citizen of the empire.

 

During the 14 months of war, Nazario Sauro was in command of several ships and submarines and remained recognizable primarily as an experienced and innovative submariner owing to his tactics of entering in direct proximity of enemy ports. Among his much talked about actions of torpedoing and cannonading Austrian ports are also his attacks on Monfalcone, Sesljan, Poreč and Piran. Much about Sauro's attack on Piran was also written by Diego de Castro in his autobiographical book (Memorie di un novantenne).

 

As a navigation officer, Sauro took part in the mission by the submarine Giacinto Pullino in the Kvarner Gulf in July 1916 where, however, it unexpectedly ran aground at the islet of Galijola, from where it was unable to proceed with its voyage towards Rijeka as well as back to Italian waters. The Austro-Hungarian Navy captured Nazario Sauro in a lifeboat and brought him to Pula, where upon being recognized despite his changed name, a military court tried him for treason and sentenced to death by hanging. The sentence was implemented on 10 August 1916.

 

In Italy, Nazario Sauro is still esteemed as a national hero, while in our country this reverence also evokes the memory of Italy's deprivation of national rights policy against Slovenes and Croats in the Primorska region, Istria and Dalmatia.

 

In the period of fascism, his image and staunch irredentist stance were immortalized for ideological purposes. Both Nazario’s sons were active participants in the fascist regime, particularly son Italo who had a major influence on the anti-Slavic predisposition and deprivation of national right by the Italian occupation forces.

 

The retired Admiral and former submariner Romano Sauro, grandson of Nazario and son of Libero Sauro, wrote a book “Nazario Sauro, storia di un marinaio” about his grandfather in 1913 together with his son Francesco, in which he deals with Nazario's life and work in the historically complex times prior and during World War I in a more reconciliatory light towards Yugoslavia and with an evident effort for objectivity. 
After World War I, a big monument to Nazario Sauro was erected in Koper, but was removed by the Germans after 1943.

 

The Maritime Museum Piran attends with historical distance and utmost objectivity to all important figures from our parts of the country, particularly those who left a mark on the history of maritime affairs. This is the reason why we also decided to describe the life and work of this historically important submariner from Koper in the column People From the Sea.

 

Franco Juri

 

 

References:

♦ Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 90: Nazario Sauro, Roma 2017.

♦ Pavšič, Primož: Koprski veslaški klub Libertas, diplomsko delo Univerza v Ljubljani, Fakulteta za šport, Ljubljana 2011.

♦ Sauro, Romano;  Sauro  Francesco: Nazario Sauro - Storia di un marinaio,  La Musa Talìa, Venezia 2013.

♦ Žitko, Salvator: Italijanski nacionalizem in iredentizem - valilnica za kasnejši nastanek obmejnega fašizma, Acta Histriae 24, Koper 2016, 4, str. 689-704.

♦ Treccani: https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/nazario-sauro_(Dizionario-Biografico)/