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Cesare Battisti (Yvert Tellier, 1966 no 958 )

Cesare Battisti was born in Trento (1875) when the county was part of the Asburgic Empire.

He studied in Florence and took a degree in Geography of his county. Back in Trento, during 1900 he started the newspaper "The People" and embraced the course of irredentism and socialism.

During 1911 he was elected member of Vienna Parliament and there he supported the impossibility of Trento county problem solution in the Asburgic Empire. When the first World War broke out, he moved to Milan and, during 1915, he enrolled as volunteer in the Italian "Alpini" troop.

Taken prisoner on Corno Mount, after a summary procedure, two days later he was hanged by Austria on 12th July 1916, together with three other irredentists.

During 1898 he started with a speleological club inside of SAT (Societą Alpinisti Trentini) and parallel with his job as geographist (he wrote a large number of guide books on his county), he pointed out and related several new caves: Bus de la Vecia and Bus de la Angane (1905); Grotta di Ponte Alto (1907); Bus de la Strie, Caverna tra Ragoli e Stenico, Camerona. Bus de la Bastia and Arca di Fraporte (1909).

He visited, taking photos and adding new information, other already known caves: Grotta di Sorminore (1905), Grotta di Costalta (1906), La Spaccata and Covolo di Rio Malo (1907).

Together with Mr Trener he worked at a very important speleological book describing the karst area of the Terlago lake (Tridentum 1908). Battisti wrote several speleological articles and rightfully can be considered the father of Trento speleology and one of the promotors of the Italian speleology.