1848 BATTLE OF SANTA LUCIA. The Church of Santa Lucia Extra

A thing that is quite curious is how many battles were fought around a church. It is true that Europe is dotted with churches everywhere, Catholic, Protestant or Othodox, but it's curious that the bloodiest fightings happened close to where it was (and is) preached to love each other.

The battle of Santa Lucia fought on 6th May 1848 does not make any exeption to that and saw a very hard fighting around the Church and the usual graveyard close to the church. 

Santa Lucia in 1848 was a very small village just outside the bastions of Verona, and it was a church and graveyard, a school next to the church and some farms more or less big. 

So for wargaming it is quite simple. I checked on google.map out it looks like today the church, and it remained the same as then. Just the rest of the farms were incorporated in the current town of Verona.

Santa Lucia Extra's Church now

On the left (West), there is the graveyard and the side from where the Piedmontese attacked the village; on the right (East) the town of Verona. So the church is with its back on the street that now like then was leading to the town. The bell-tower is quite high. while all the buildings on the right are after the battle. The front of the churc is is baroque style, while the rest with old bricks.

At the beginning I did some mistake and I did all the church in a baroque style. First I did the facade, and I glued it to a (baby-milk) box, that I covered with walls like the façade. Wrong!

I know, it seems like I didn't have a great enthusiasm for this church. But then I started to study it and I added 4 buttresses and started the first (yes I am going to do more transformations!).

Here the fisrt results:

As you can see I also did (mistake!) some long windows, that are totally not correct.

Then I proceeded to add the posterior part of the church (I should have done longer, by the way, and maybe I will do); but keeping in this way (maybe in 1848 was in this way) I can re-use this Italian style church also for the Battle of Turin (1706) where close to Castle of Lucento there was in fact a church, similar to this one.

Here the back-adding:

I then added the roof and linked it with the buttresses

From this point on the Church started to match with my wargame-taste, and made me make some major efforts on it. I covered all the sides and back of the church of bricks (the first versione of bricks were too big, so I had to recover the walls a second time with the correct size of bricks)

I covered the roof with typical Italian "tegole" 

I finished it with the yard around made of stones

I proceeded then with the towerbell, but maybe its proportions are not correct, above all it is too short. So other works to be done and corrections to do.

Yes! Defenitly I will increase tge height of the towerbell; it has to grow around 5 cm, and I have to had the watch.

But how my little paper armies look like next to this church? Here the effect, hoping you will enjoyed it.

Important PS: I just read on wikipedia that the church in 1898 had a total breakdown while they were building some enlargement to the church. So it means that the current vision with long tail (that in fact doesn't match with the proportions) was added. So I will keep the church in ths way, without any building around it, but the belltower. Good news, less work!