Pietro Micca

Private Pietro Micca (6 March 1677 – 30 August 1706), also known as Pierre Micha, was an Italian soldier who became a national hero of the Duchy of Savoy for sacrificing himself during the siege of Turin of the War of Spanish Succession. Serving as a sapper in the Savoyard Army, he prevented a breakthrough by French grenadiers by lighting two gunpowder barrels at the cost of his life.

Early and personal life

Micca was born at Sagliano, now Sagliano Micca, Piedmont, near the town of Biella. His father was bricklayer Giacomo Micca, a native of Sagliano and his mother was Anna Martinazzo, of the Riabella frazione of San Paolo Cervo.

On 29 October 1704 Micca married Maria Cattarina Bonino and the marriage produced one son, Giacomo Antonio (1705–1733). Micca initially worked as a bricklayer before enrolling as a sapper in the Sabaudian army which was then engaged in the War of the Spanish Succession (1702–1714).

Military action and death

Micca was enlisted into the Savoyard Army as a sapper at the rank of private; During the siege of Turin, Micca was employed as a tunneller and bricklayer in the military mines, which ran under the citadel. The mines were designed to detect Franco-Spanish attempts to dig under the citadel and to neutralize them by blowing them up. For this purpose, barrels of gunpowder were placed in strategic places around the network of mines.

On the night of 29–30 August 1706, a party of French grenadiers crept into a large trench, which had been the site of a failed assault on the citadel. The Piemontese had lit bonfires in the trench to burn dead bodies, and this meant that the French grenadiers were not seen. The remnants of the attackers' grenades, knives and other personal equipment were discovered, and are displayed at the museum.

Micca's heroism has been the subject of poems, plays and romances. However, according to Count Giuseppe Solaro della Margherita, the commander of the Turin garrison at the time, it was through a miscalculation of the pace of the fuse, and not by deliberate intent, that he sacrificed his life. As well as the Museo Civico Pietro Micca, a central street in Turin was named after him, and a statue was erected in his honour. His home town was renamed from Andorno to Andorno Micca. In 1938 a film Pietro Micca was produced, focusing on his actions during the siege of Turin.