Pietro Micca

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 his sacrifice in the defence of Turin against the French troops. Early life Micca was born at Sagliano, now Sagliano Micca, Piedmont, near the town of Biella. His mother was Anna Martinazzo, of Riabella. In his home village, he worked as a bricklayer. Micca was enlisted into the Sabaudian army as a sapper, with the rank of a private soldier; he was nicknamed Passepartout. Military action and death 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 observed. The French grenadiers attacked a small number of Savoyard soldiers at the base of the trench, who were guarding an entrance to the Savoyard mines. The French grenadiers killed them and entered the upper level of the mines.