The Austrian military leader and Czech nobleman Jan Josef Václav Radecký of Radec became a legend during his lifetime. He served in the army of the Austrian Empire and was an aide to Marshal Laudon. During the Napoleonic Wars, he was promoted. In 1829 he became commander of the Olomouc fortress. He stayed in the Edelmann Palace, on which his memorial plaque has been placed since 1892.
From 1813, as a field marshal, he was chief of the general staff of the army of Karl Schwarzenberg. He was the author of the Allied plans for the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig in 1813. In February 1829 Radetzky was promoted to the rank of general of cavalry and in November of the same year he received the post of commander of the Olomouc fortress. After a year in Olomouc, he took command of the Austrian army in Lombardy and Veneto in 1831. Radetzky’s most famous period is connected with northern Italy and the revolutionary year of 1848. At the Battle of Custozza he defeated the Italian army of the Sardinian King Charles Arberto, who was thus forced to call for a truce. Radetzky inflicted the final defeat on the Sardinian king at the Battle of Novara. Radetzky then served as governor of the Lombard-Venetian kingdom until 1857.
During his stay in Olomouc from 1829 to 1831, he resided in the Edelmann Palace on Horní náměstí. A memorial plaque has been placed there since 1892.
