Luciano Manara (23 March 1825 – 30 June 1849) was a Milanese soldier and politician of the Risorgimento era, who took part in the Roman Republic.

Life

Manara was born in Milan in 1825. A friend of

Carlo Cattaneo Carlo Cattaneo (; 15 June 1801 – 6 February 1869) was an Italian philosopher, writer, and activist, famous for his role in the Five Days of Milan in March 1848, when he led the city council during the rebellion. Early life Cattaneo was born i ...

, in 1848 he participated in the Five Days of Milan (leading, among others, the operation that led to the capture of Porta Tosa) and in the

First Italian War of Independence The First Italian War of Independence ( it, Prima guerra d'indipendenza italiana), part of the Italian Unification (''Risorgimento''), was fought by the Kingdom of Sardinia (Piedmont) and Italian volunteers against the Austrian Empire and other ...

with a group of volunteers he had organised himself. On the Austrians' return, he fled to Piedmont, where he was put at the head of a corps of bersaglieri, with whom he fought on the Po and at La Cava (now renamed

Cava Manara Cava Manara is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the province of Pavia in the Italian region Lombardy, located about 35 km south of Milan and about 7 km southwest of Pavia, not far from the confluence of the Ticino and the Po rivers. The '' ...

after him). Fighting in defence of the Roman Republic and as Garibaldi's

chief of staff The title chief of staff (or head of staff) identifies the leader of a complex organization such as the armed forces, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a principal staff officer (PSO), who is the coordinator of the supporti ...

, he died aged only 24 at the battle at

Villa Spada A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became sm ...

on 30 June. His funeral was held at the church of San Lorenzo in Lucina, with the homily spoken by Don Ugo Bassi. For a short time his body remained in Rome, since his mother was unable to gain permission from the Austrian authorities in Vienna to have it taken to Milan. With the remains of Emilio Morosini and Enrico Dandolo (the latter having been killed at Villa Corsini), it was eventually brought to Vezia (Lugano), where it was temporarily laid to rest in the family vault of the

Morosini Morosini is an Italian surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Morosini family *Piermario Morosini (1986–2012), Italian footballer * Sergio Rossetti Morosini (1953– ), New York author, painter, sculptor and independent filmmaker, ha ...

. At Manara's mother's continued prayers and supplications, in 1853 the Austrian emperor Franz Joseph granted permission for the body to be taken to Barzanò (where the Manara family had a villa), so long as its progress and reburial there was "strictly private". Only on Italy's unification in 1864 was the Manara family allowed to erect their family monument, in grey and white stone in the

Romantic Romantic may refer to: Genres and eras * The Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement of the 18th and 19th centuries ** Romantic music, of that era ** Romantic poetry, of that era ** Romanticism in science, of that e ...

style, with a bas-relief portrayal of him beside a weeping veiled female figure (representing his mother or the Motherland). The inscription on his monument reads: The monument is surrounded by a small park of cypress trees, with a chapel along whose two sides are ten white marble tombstones of equal size commemorating Luciano's sisters, Virginia in Manati and Deidamia, his wife Carmelita Fè and his three sons.

Notes

External links

Inscription at Milan

Inscription at Antegnate
* https://web.archive.org/web/20080529045458/http://www.comune.barzano.lc.it/index.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Manara, Luciano 1825 births 1849 deaths Military personnel from Milan Italian people of the Italian unification Italian military personnel killed in action