09/09/2026
SOLDIERS' SOLDIER
Yesterday Turin celebrated the 320th anniversary of the Siege of Turin in 1706 and the death of Hero-soldier Pietro Micca, who, by setting fire to a barrel of blasting powder, prevented French soldiers from entering the town and opening its doors to the enemy.
"Soldiers' Soldier" is the poetic description I wrote once about him as an exchange student in England. That day I also learnt that - aside from the people in Turin - nobody else in Italy knows about him; which is a pity, because without his sacrifice, not only might we speak French now - as we mockingly say - but also the House of Savoy wouldn't have gained the importance it gained at the end of the Spanish secession war, with unforseeable consequences for the rest of Italian history.
So here are a few takes from yesterday - taken at two different locations in town and the road in between.
Keep scrolling for a short account of who he was and what he did (source: Wikipedia)
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Torino
Pietro Micca
Guerra di successione sp****la
Casa savoia
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.[Wikipedia]
Micca was enlisted into the Savoyard Army as a sapper at the rank of private; he was nicknamed Passepartout. 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. [Wikipedia]
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
