Ten Days of Brescia
브레샤 10일
Part of First Italian War of Independence
The rising in the Austrian-ruled Lombard city of Brescia that broke out on 23 March 1849, the day the battle of Novara ended, and was crushed on 1 April. Some 1,000 citizens were killed, and the city earned the name "Lioness of Italy".
In depth
The rising, led by Tito Speri, began before news of the defeat at Novara arrived. Nugent's Austrians withdrew into the castle and shelled the town, and once reinforcements had surrounded it General Haynau demanded unconditional surrender. The citizens refused and fighting went on late into the night, and on 1 April, before the surrender was signed, the Austrians sacked the city and massacred inhabitants. Haynau came to be called "the Hyena of Brescia".
The name "Lioness of Italy" was given by the poet Aleardo Aleardi in 1857 and spread through Carducci's Odi barbare (1877).