Forte Monte
The fortress Forte Monte (until 1881 Fort Mollinary ) was originally an Austrian military property in the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia , which until 1866 belonged to the Austrian Empire . It lies to the left of the Adige at 410 meters above sea level on Monte Pastello in the area of the Monte fraction of the municipality of Sant'Ambrogio di Valpolicella in today's province of Verona . Together with Fort Hlawaty (now Forte Ceraino) as well as Fort Wohlgemuth (now Forte Rivoli) and the Chiusa road block (now Forte di Chiusa), behind the Pastrengo barrier, it formed the second barrier on the Adige with the road from the south to Tyrol (today's State Road 12 - SS 12). The fort also covered the back of Fort Hlawaty / Ceraino and the space between the fortress Peschiera . The later Italian name for this blocking group was: "Gruppo di Rivoli". The also belonging Forte San Marco was only built by the Italians after 1888.
After the uprisings in Lombardy in 1848 , two restricted groups were created in front of the then Tyrolean border with Veneto , which were supposed to prevent any opposing troops from passing through the Adige valley.
It was built at the suggestion of Field Marshal Radetzky in the years 1849-1851 and was named after the later Feldzeugmeister Anton Mollinary , who served as pioneer commander here for seven years. The planning for the construction was carried out, as with the other works of the group, by the "kk fortification office" in Verona .
After Veneto was lost to Austria after the war of 1866 , the border shifted to the north and the fortifications to the south became the property of the Kingdom of Italy and thus the Regio Esercito . Until 1884 the fort was largely rebuilt and adapted to the new conditions. In addition, it was made possible for the artillery in the fort to work northwards. When it was put back into service, it was renamed “Forte Monte”, which for the sake of simplicity was the name of the hamlet on whose territory the plant was located.
Due to the outdated construction, it became useless as a fortress soon after completion. It was first used as a magazine by the Italian army and from 1943 by the Wehrmacht , made unusable in 1945 and then abandoned.
General Information
It was built in towering masonry in the style of that time from hewn blocks of the Veronese marble ( rosso ammonitico ) found here with a waterproof layer of clay and a pile of earth of up to two meters on the ceiling. There were two artillery sections - once a casemate corps facing south, west and north and a second section to the east consisting of a wall with a rampart and free-standing field guns. The casemate corps, which was built like a citadel , had two cannon slots on the lower floor to the south, five to the west and four to the north. The yard could be painted with gun holes. The valley side was a dry trench three meters wide and two meters deep. This had to be crossed on a drawbridge.
Crew and armament
The war crew consisted of:
- a three-quarters company of infantry and 95 to 115 artillerymen.
- Armament
The maximum artillery equipment could consist of up to 24 guns. After 1866 the fort was armed with about 20 guns of various calibers, some of which were kept in reserve. The following were ready for use:
- 5 cannons of caliber 120 mm or 210 mm (breech loader)
- 12 field cannons
- 2 mortars
today
When the German Wehrmacht withdrew from the area in 1945, the German soldiers blew up the facility, which was badly damaged. It is currently privately owned and is badly neglected. It can be reached on the old military road that leads from the hamlet of Ceraino past the Ceraino plant to the hamlet of Monte.
annotation
All technical information, including information on armament and crew, relates only to the Italian fort after 1884. There is currently no useful information available for the time before the renovation.
See also
literature
- Francesco Garau, Augusto Garau: Forti - Rocche e Castelli della Provincia di Verona. Provincia di Verona Turismo (Verona).
- Vittorio Jacobacci: La piazzaforte di Verona sotto la dominazione austriaca 1814–1866. Cassa di Risparmio di Verona Vicenza e Belluno (Verona 1980).
- Il Quadrilatero nella storia militare, politica, economica e sociale dell'Italia risorgimentale 1967. Comune di Verona (Verona).
- A. Sandrini, P. Brugnoli: Architettura a Verona dal periodo napoleonico all'età contemporanea. Banca popolare di Verona 1994 (Verona).
Web links
Coordinates: 45 ° 34 ′ 1 ″ N , 10 ° 49 ′ 51 ″ E