 Illustration of Italia c. 1891
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name | Italia class |
| Operators |  Regia Marina |
| Preceded by | Duilio class |
| Succeeded by | Ruggiero di Lauria class |
| Built | 1876–1887 |
| In service | 1885–1921 |
| Completed | 2 |
| Retired | 2 |
| General characteristics [1] | |
| Type | Ironclad battleship |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 124.7 m (409 ft 1 in) length overall |
| Beam | 22.54 m (74 ft) |
| Draft | 8.75 m (28 ft 8 in) |
| Installed power |
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| Propulsion | |
| Speed | 17.5 knots (32.4 km/h; 20.1 mph) |
| Range | 5,000 nautical miles (9,260 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement |
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| Armament |
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| Armor |
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The Italia class was a class of two ironclad battleships built for the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy) in the 1870s and 1880s. The two ships—Italia and Lepanto—were designed by Benedetto Brin, who chose to discard traditional belt armor entirely, relying on a combination of very high speed and extensive internal subdivision to protect the ships. This, along with their armament of very large 432 mm (17 in) guns, has led some naval historians to refer to the Italia class as prototypical battlecruisers.
Despite serving for over thirty years, the ships had uneventful careers. They spent their first two decades in service with the Active and Reserve Squadrons, where they were primarily occupied with training maneuvers. Lepanto was converted into a training ship in 1902 and Italia was significantly modernized in 1905–1908 before also becoming a training ship. They briefly saw action during the Italo-Turkish War, where they provided gunfire support to Italian troops defending Tripoli. Lepanto was discarded in early 1915, though Italia continued on as a guard ship during World War I, eventually being converted into a grain transport. She was ultimately broken up for scrap in 1921.
- ^ Figures are for Italia