The battle of Santa Lucia was an episode in the First Italian War of Independence

First Italian War of Independence

The First Italian War of Independence was fought in 1848 between the Kingdom of Sardinia and the Austrian Empire. The war saw main battles at Custoza and Novara in which the Austrians under Radetzky managed to defeat the Piedmontese....

. On 6 May 1848, when the king of Sardinia, Carlo Alberto

Charles Albert of Sardinia

Charles Albert was the King of Piedmont-Sardinia from 1831 to 1849. He succeeded his distant cousin Charles Felix, and his name is bound with the first Italian statute and the First War of Independence...

, sent I Corps of the Sardinian army to assault the fortified positions held before the walls of Verona

Verona

Verona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona...

 by the Austrian army under field marshal Josef Radetzky

Joseph Radetzky von Radetz

Johann Josef Wenzel Graf Radetzky von Radetz was a Czech nobleman and Austrian general, immortalised by Johann Strauss I's Radetzky March...

. The Austrian army, though outnumbered, managed to withstand the attack and hold their positions. The battle is named after the Santa Lucia

Santa Lucia (Verona)

Santa Lucia was an ancient paesino next to Verona...

 district of Verona. Franz Joseph

Franz Joseph I of Austria

Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I was Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia, King of Croatia, Apostolic King of Hungary, King of Galicia and Lodomeria and Grand Duke of Cracow from 1848 until his death in 1916.In the December of 1848, Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria abdicated the throne as part of...

 (then only 17 years old) assisted at the battle.

Scope of hostilities

On 18 March 1848, revolt broke out in Milan

Five Days of Milan

The Five Days of Milan was a major event in the Revolutionary Year of 1848 and the start of the First Italian War of Independence. On March 18th, the city of Milan, rose, and in five days of street fighting drove Marshal Radetzky and his men from the city....

. The commander of the Lombard–Venetian

Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia

The Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia was created at the Congress of Vienna, which recognised the House of Habsburg's rights to Lombardy and Venetia after the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed by Napoleon in 1805, had collapsed...

 army, field marshal Josef Radetzky, had excited the rebellion but did not know how to crush it and was forced to abandon the city of fierce fighting. At the same time many other cities in Lombardy–Venetia and at Como the entire garrison went over to the insurgents.

The day after Radetzky evacuated Milan, the king of Sardinia

Charles Albert of Sardinia

Charles Albert was the King of Piedmont-Sardinia from 1831 to 1849. He succeeded his distant cousin Charles Felix, and his name is bound with the first Italian statute and the First War of Independence...

 declared war on Austria and crossed the Ticino. His army was organised in 2 corps, the first entrusted to Eusebio Bava

Eusebio Bava

Eusebio Bava was an Italian general who fought in the Italian Wars of Independence.-Biography:Born at Vercelli, in 1806 he fought as a volunteer under the French flag against Prussia. He took part in the French campaigns in Spain and Portugal, and was captured by the British at Porto in 1805...

, the second to Ettore Gerbaix di Sonnaz.