The battle of Santa Lucia, part of the First Italian War of Independence, was fought on 6 May 1848, when the king of Sardinia, Carlo Alberto, sent the I Corps of the Sardinian army to assault the fortified positions held before the walls of Verona by the Austrian army under field marshal Josef Radetzky.

The commander of the Lombard–Venetian army, field marshal Josef Radetzky, had excited the rebellion but did not know how to crush it and was forced to abandon the city of fierce fighting.

Assembled inside Verona there was still a considerable force, protected by valid fortifications: however, Austrian troops were demotivated after the first defeats (excepting the victory of 11 April over ill-equipped Lombard volunteers nearly Cortenuovo, followed by the killings of nearly 113 civilians).

[1] In addition, the possibility of receiving help from General Nugent's troops through Isonzo was barricaded by the presence of Italian rebels in Palmanova, Osoppo and Venice.

To make Radetzky situation even worse, political situation after repression of Austrian Revolution led many observers to doubt about the field-marshal's capacity in maintaining order, and he was labeled as a conservative monarchist by public liberal opinion.