In 1797, the statue of S. Angela Merici was taken down by the Jacobins from its place in Desenzano del Garda’s main square. The statue had stood in Piazza Malvezzi since 1782. In its place they put the ‘Tree of Liberty’, a symbol of the French Revolution which comprised a pole painted in the French national colours and topped by a Phrygian cap. But in 1800 this majestic statue was replaced when the Austrians took back the territory which had been part of Veneto.
