The Principe di Carignano class was a group of three ironclad warships built for the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy) in the 1860s. The class comprised the ships Principe di Carignano, Messina, and Conte Verde. Originally ordered as wooden frigates, they were the first ironclads to be built in Italy, but the inexperience of the Italian shipyards and the redesign process produced lengthy construction times, such that only the lead ship was completed in time to see action during the Third Italian War of Independence in 1866. The first two ships were protected by a complete belt of wrought iron plating that was 121 millimetres (4.75 in) thick, while Conte Verde only received a partial iron belt.