Pietro Micca Pietro Micca ( March 6 , 1677 – August 30 , 1706 ) was a Savoyard soldier who became a national hero for his sacrifice in the defence of Turin ( 1706 ) against the French troops . Early life . Micca was born at Andorno ( Piedmont ) near the town of Biella . His mother was Anna Martinazzo , of Riabella . In his home village , he worked as a bricklayer . Micca was enlisted into the Savoy army as a sapper , with the rank of a private soldier . Military action and death . 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 . On the night of August 29 – 30 , 1706 , a party of French grenadier s crept into a large trench , which had been the site of a failed assault on the citadel . The Piemontese had lit bonfires in the trench to burn dead bodies , and this meant that the French grenadiers were not observed . The French grenadiers attacked a small number of Savoyard soldiers at the base of the trench , who were guarding an entrance to the Savoyard mines . The French grenadiers killed them and entered the upper level of the mines . On hearing the French attack , Micca and a comrade barred a door at the top of the steps leading down to the lower level of the mines . As the French grenadiers attempted to break down the door , Micca sent away his comrade , lit a very short fuse and placed it in two barrels of gunpowder behind the door . The gunpowder exploded as the French grenadiers broke down the door , killing and injuring most of them . Micca was severely injured in the explosion and died due to his injuries and poisonous carbon dioxide gas , which had been released by the exploding gunpowder . Had the French grenadiers reached the lower level of the mines , they could have entered the heart of the citadel and the city itself . Micca ' s sacrifice prevented this , and the French assault was repulsed with heavy losses . A few days later , the steps where Micca had exploded the bomb were quickly bricked over . Micca ' s body was buried in a mass grave . Memorial and archaeology . In 1958 , Captain ( later General ) Guido Amoretti discovered the bricked - up ' Pietro Micca steps ' and these form the centre - piece of the network of military mines , which can be visited at the " Museo Civico Pietro Micca " ( the Civic Museum of Pietro Micca and the siege of Turin ) . The remnants of the attackers ' grenades , knives and other personal equipment were discovered , and are displayed at the museum . Micca ' s heroism has been the subject of poems , plays and romances . But , according to Count Giuseppe Solaro della Margherita , the commander of the Turin garrison at the time , it was through a miscalculation of the pace of the fuse , and not by deliberate intent , that he sacrificed his life . As well as the Museo Civico Pietro Micca , a central street in Turin was named after him , and a statue erected in his honour . His home town was renamed from Andorno to Andorno Micca .