Luciano Manara

Luciano Manara, a patriot and a key figure in the Italian Risorgimento, was born in Milan on March 25, 1825. He pursued his studies in his hometown and later attended the naval school in Venice. He also travelled and lived in France and Germany, enjoying a comfortable life due to his family's high economic status. The family had become the owner of a villa in Barzanò since 1833. From the early 1840s, especially after his marriage, his patriotic feelings grew stronger. He was influenced by his interactions at Countess Maffei's salon in Milan, where he became friends of some of the most important figures in the Risorgimento, including Emilio and Enrico Dandolo, Ernesto Morosini, Carlo Cattaneo, and Emilio Cernuschi.

During the Five Days of Milan, Manara stands out for his courage and value, he manages to raise barricades to prevent the recapture of the Duomo by the Austrian army and then led the decisive assault on Porta Tosa against Radetzky's troops. Manara also participates in the First Italian War of Independence, during which he organizes the Lombard Bersaglieri corps, a unit of the bravest volunteer fighters, deployed on various fronts. Leading the 1st Column aimed at invading the Trentino to stop the Austrian advance, Manara and his troops were, however, were stopped just a few kilometres from Trento.

Following the defeat of the Piedmontese army and the re-annexation of Lombardy to Austria, in the middle of the disturbances caused by the revolts that continuously disrupt various parts of the Italian peninsula, Luciano Manara leaves on a journey to Rome leading a group of soldiers with the goal of defending the newly established Roman Republic.

They were 600 Bersaglieri, including Emilio Dandolo, led by Manara to "defend an Italian city from foreigners," as Dandolo recounts in his memoirs. However, the resistance against the French army came to an end after a long battle in June 1849, during which Luciano Manara, who had been appointed Chief of Staff by Giuseppe Garibaldi, lost his life in the clashes at Villa Spada. This happened on June 30, the same day when the surrender of the Roman Republic was declared.