Risorgimento Battle: Explosive Clash at Lazise Powder Keg, 1848

Because of a spy from the Lacisensi, Castelnuovo burns and the Austrian powder keg explodes. It is April 11, 1848, a crucial year in the Risorgimento history. In Lombardo-Veneto, under Austrian control, the tax pressure is extremely heavy and no political reforms are in sight. All of Europe rises up, and Milan is perhaps the most militant square against oppressors. Participating in these actions are Lombard volunteers, who disembark by lake at Bardolino and Lazise to take part in military operations against the fortress of Peschiera. On April 6, 1848, volunteer troops commanded by Luciano Manara leave from Salò heading towards Cisano. They reach the area with 450 volunteers on April 10. They push on to Lazise and settle in the rectory, which today is the private residence of the Battistoni family. At 4 p.m., they arrive at Pacengo, under the command of General Noaro. The bell tower becomes an observation point over Peschiera. Guiding and interpreting are students from Lazise, Carlo Rossetti and Gottardo Aldegheri. During these operations, Noaro is informed by Lazise spies about the existence of the Austrian powder keg in Cavalcaselle. The powders stored there would be taken during wartime to be brought inside the Querini bastion, in Peschiera. The powder keg was located on the current road connecting Confine with Colà, in Lazise territory. Still visible are the well and the guardhouse, incorporated into a farmstead. The volunteers urgently needed gunpowder. The decision to seize the powder keg was immediate. Operations started already on April 10, and on April 11, one hundred volunteers from Cadalora arrived, loading with bayonets to avoid gunfire and the explosion of the powder keg, which held 582 barrels of gunpowder and numerous bullets. The Austrians left Campofiore barracks in Verona under the command of General Guglielmo Thurm Taxis. Taxis moved to Cavalcaselle with about 3,000 men, determined to clear out the Lombard volunteers. The soldiers were all veterans; the volunteers mostly students, lawyers, writers—enthusiastic but inexperienced. A fierce and bloody battle ensued, marked by a real massacre between volunteers and civilians. The casualties were uncounted. The powder keg exploded at the hands of a Milanese student named Bossi. The town of Castelnuovo burned for days. Out of 172 houses, 116 were destroyed. This was a true massacre that Castelnuovo still remembers. “More than 150 years have passed,” says Sergio Girardi, a local historian of Risorgimento history who this year will also lay a wreath at the powder keg to commemorate the episode, “but the memory still lives on. The Austrians also attacked the church, a sacred place where many villagers were besieged. It was a massacre. A fresco in Castelnuovo’s parish church, dear to the local people, vividly remembers it.” Today, the remains of the powder keg, emblem and cause of the massacre, have lost their significance for newer generations. “Almost no one,” continues Girardi, “in Lazise is aware of the existence of this military structure, full of tunnels and a significant symbol of our Risorgimento history.” “It must not be forgotten,” concludes Girardi, “the sacrifice of don Antonio Oliosi, coadjutor of Castelnuovo: he died in Salzburg after being imprisoned at Castelvecchio and humiliated in every way.”