Pietro Micca

Pietro Micca

Pietro Micca (bourgeois Pierre Micha ; born March 6, 1677 in Sagliano near Biella , † August 30, 1706 in Turin ) was a soldier in the Piedmontese army . During the Battle of Turin in the War of the Spanish Succession , he detonated an explosive charge in a mine tunnel to prevent a French break-in into the fortress of Turin.

Siege of Turin

After months of siege fighting , French units managed to break into one of the underground mine passages on the night of August 29th to 30th, 1706 in front of the fortress, where they tried to break open a heavy door in order to penetrate further into the citadel . Micca guarded this door together with a comrade.

Realizing that they could not prevent a French breakthrough, the two decided to blow up a nearby barrel of 20 kg of gunpowder to collapse the underground passage. Since there was no long enough fuse available, Micca sent his comrade away and tried to flee, but without success. His body was found less than 30 meters from the location of the blast.

Due to his deed, among other things, the French siege of the fortress failed. After the Battle of Turin, the French had to withdraw completely from Piedmont .

Honors

• In Turin today there is the Pietro Micca Museum , which also depicts the siege and battle of Turin.
• The Italian director Aldo Vergano made a feature film in 1938 with the title Pietro Micca .
• The Italian Navy named various ships and submarines after Micca:
  • The Pietro Micca (built in 1876), a torpedo destroyer of the Lampo class
  • The Pietro Micca (built in 1895), today a museum ship
  • The Pietro Micca (built in 1917) is a transport submarine of the Pietro Micca class
  • The Pietro Micca (built in 1935) a minelayer submarine ( single ship )