Forte Monte Tesoro

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Forte Monte Tesoro, throat side with casemate block and caponier

Forte Monte Tesoro is a former Italian fortress in the province of Verona . Not a single shot was fired from the fortress, which was completed in 1911. In the First World War it was far behind the front line from the beginning of the war and was soon disarmed.

location

The plant was built on the summit of Monte Tesoro 917  m slm in the Corrubio district of the municipality of Sant'Anna d'Alfaedo on the southern edge of the Lessinian Alps . It is located between the Valle di Prun in the west and the neighboring Valpantena to the east, about 1.5 km as the crow flies from the Ponte di Veja .

history

Forte Monte Tesoro was part of the barrier belt created north of the fortress Verona, which had already been created in parts by the Austrian Empire in the 19th century . After the loss of Veneto in 1866 as a result of the German War , the lock was adapted by the Kingdom of Italy to the new strategic location and expanded until shortly before the outbreak of the First World War. In addition to the barrier group at Rivoli Veronese on the Veronese Klause , this barrier belt also included the barrier group east of the Adige in the Lessin Alps with Forte Monte Tesoro. The latter was supposed to prevent any Austro-Hungarian attempted intrusions over the plateau of the Lessinian Alps, over which the border between the Kingdom of Italy and the Habsburg Monarchy ran since 1866 .

The first plans to build a barrier on Monte Tesoro were forged in the 19th century. Work did not begin until 1906 and should be completed two years later, but ended up dragging on until 1911. It was built in the style of the model for mountain barriers designed by Enrico Rocchi , general of the Italian engineering troops , at the end of the 19th century and, like the Verena , Campolongo or Lisser plants on the plateau of the seven municipalities , was already out of date when completed. It would not have withstood a fire from the Austro-Hungarian siege artillery , such as the 30.5 cm mortar or the 38 cm siege howitzer, as the example of Forte Verena shows.

With Forte Santa Viola to the east, it was one of the newer systems of the Sperrgruppe on the Lessinian Alps. The two works of the Sperrgruppe, Masua and Castelletto, which were built in the 19th century, had also been modernized by adding battery blocks with armored towers .

The Italian General Staff also viewed the work on Forte Monte Tesoro critically. One criticized the qualifications of the site management, who at a certain point in time had been entrusted to an officer of the railway engineering troops who was completely inexperienced in this area. The high construction costs were also criticized, as the work was not only done internally by military personnel, but civil companies were also entrusted with orders.

After the Italian entry into the war in May 1915, Forte Monte Tesoro was far behind the front line and was soon disarmed. It served the Italian army as an ammunition depot until the 1980s . In 2013, the facility and its 22-hectare site were handed over to the municipality of Sant'Anna d'Alfaedo, which had the plant restored. The restored Forte Monte Tesoro can be visited again since 2018.

description

Even if Forte Monte Tesoro was described by the Italian genius corp as a modern and powerful barrage, it is characterized by its traditional architectural style from the 19th century with walls made of quarry stone and more decorative than functional elements. For the construction, local quarry stone was used, which was transported to the construction site on Monte Tesoro by means of a specially constructed cable car. Only certain areas, such as the roof of the battery block or the close combat systems, were reinforced with reinforced concrete.

The multi-storey fort, which adapts perfectly to the terrain, is completely surrounded by a moat. Access is via a centrally placed caponier in the throat ditch , which is connected to the ground floor of the casemate block. The generator room for the power and compressed air supply, which was required for smoke extraction in the gun turrets, was on the ground floor. There were also storage rooms, the kitchens for the crew and officers, the accommodation of the fortress commander and the other officers, the sickroom and some rooms in which the artillery shells were prepared and assembled for use. On the southeast side of the Valpantena himself a pulling Poterne with armored loopholes out as flank protection between work and Eastern flank ditch, which is reached via a separate entrance in Kehl ditch.

Two stairs at the two outer ends of the ground floor lead to the first floor where the casemates for the 226 men of the fortress garrison and the ammunition depots for the artillery were located. Posternes connect the first floor with three retractable machine gun turrets in front of the building and with the concreted infantry position around the casemate block for close defense.

On the second floor, which can again be reached via two flights of stairs from the first floor, was the battery block with the six armored turrets for the 149 mm cannons supplied by Armstrong, Mitchell & Co. in Pozzuoli . At the eastern edge of the battery block there was a retractable observation dome for the artillery observer and at the opposite end the battery command post. The ammunition was brought into the battery block via ammunition lifts and then transported to the armored turrets by means of hunts before the individual grenades were pulled up to the gun emplacement using manual lifts.

Armstrong model tank turret with 149 mm A cannon

As in other fortresses of the same construction, the powder chamber is offset from the casemate block and can be reached via a long downhill tunnel from the ground floor as well as from the factory road on the south side. On the latter, a few bends below the fort, there is the two-story barracks, which consists of three parts of the building. It offered accommodation for 90 artillerymen and 276 infantrymen, but it also housed the officers' quarters, office rooms and storage rooms.

Armament

In 1915 the fort was armed with:

  • 6 cannons 149A in armored domes
  • 4 guns 75A
  • 6 machine guns including 3 in retractable armored domes

Some sources list four 149G cannons in open field positions.

literature

  • Massimo Ascoli, Fluvio Russo: La difesa dell'arco alpino 1861 - 1940 . Stato Maggiore dell'Esercito Ufficio Storico, Rome 1999.
  • Leonardo Malatesta: I forti italiani del Veronese dal 1860 al 1918: piani operativi e storia bellica . In: Atti e memorie dell'accademia di agricoltura scienze e lettere di Verona Vol. CLXXXVI (aa 2012–2013 e 2013–2014) . Accademia di agricoltura scienze e lettere di Verona, Verona 2015. PDF
  • Fiorenzo Meneghelli, Massimiliano Valdinoci: Il sistema difensivo della Lessinia: il recupero di Forte Santa Viola . Orion, Verona 2010, ISBN 978-88-903970-1-1
  • Fiorenzo Meneghelli: La Grande Guerra nel Veronese: le opere fortificate dal Baldo alla Lessinia . In: Federico Melotto (ed.): Una città di retrovia: Verona nella Grande Guerra (1914–1918) . Cierre Edizioni, Verona 2018 ISBN 978-88-8314-943-6

Web links

Commons : Forte Monte Tesoro  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Fiorenzo Meneghelli: La Grande Guerra nel Veronese: le opere fortificate dal Baldo alla Lessinia, pp. 297-298
  2. ^ Fiorenzo Meneghelli: La Grande Guerra nel Veronese: le opere fortificate dal Baldo alla Lessinia p. 310
  3. ^ Forti di Verona. In: verona.com. January 1, 2019, accessed June 20, 2019 (Italian).
  4. ^ Leonardo Malatesta: I forti italiani del Veronese dal 1860 al 1918: piani operativi e storia bellica p. 255
  5. ^ Fiorenzo Meneghelli: La Grande Guerra nel Veronese: le opere fortificate dal Baldo alla Lessinia p. 314
  6. ↑ Fiorenzo Meneghelli, Massimiliano Valdinoci: Il sistema difensivo Lessinia: il recupero di Forte Santa Viola S. 84
  7. ↑ Fiorenzo Meneghelli, Massimiliano Valdinoci: Il sistema difensivo Lessinia: il recupero di Forte Santa Viola S. 87
  8. ↑ a b Fiorenzo Meneghelli: La Grande Guerra nel Veronese: le opere fortificate dal Baldo alla Lessinia p. 314
  9. ↑ Deposito munizioni Forte Monte Tesoro accessed on June 23, 2019 (Italian)

Coordinates: 45 ° 35 ′ 46.1 ″  N , 10 ° 57 ′ 49.1 ″  E