Fortress Montebello external fortification in Portoferraio
Fortress Montebello (or Mountain Albero) is a fortification outside those of the historic center which demonstrates the strategic importance of Portoferraio still in the second half of the 18th century.
Fortress Montebello stands just over two kilometers as the crow flies from the historic fortified walls of the city. It constitutes the highest hill in the area and for this reason, exceeding in height those in front of Monte delle Bombe, San Rocco and dell’Annunziata, it allows a free view of the city and its harbour. From the top of the hill the view can also extend as far as the coasts of Corsica, Capraia and Tuscany. On the northern side the hill consists of a very steep cliff, which from the top drops straight into the sea, on the other side the cliff is less steep and allows you to dominate the plain around Portoferraio.
Fortress Montebello before the Napoleonic intervention
Before the Napoleonic intervention, the summit of the mountain did not have previous buildings, nor even today, although the building has spread around Portoferraio, it has only touched its slopes with some scattered villas. The Montebello Fort was therefore a new facility that was designed by the French military engineers and endorsed by Napoleon himself, who had already grasped the strategic potential of such an eagle’s nest a few kilometers from the masterful line of fortifications towns.
Moreover, the Emperor must not have escaped the important point of support for the artillery that the fort would have offered him not only to protect the plain, towards which the fire of the others also converged fortifications of the entrenched camp, but also and above all in the control of the sea . For this purpose the fort had to be an artificial continuation of the steep cliff, offering a high natural bulwark crowned on the top by a double level of guns to a naval attack.
The Montebello Fortress project
Fortress Montebello, designed by Napoleon, originally included barracks with a longitudinal development consisting of a sequence of nine identical modules made up of elongated, barrel-vaulted rooms joined along the long side, separated by a long corridor which also defined the external front of the manufactured; this front was combined with a large triangular bastion, with the vertex projected towards the valley and defined by a pentagonal termination. The revision of this first project, dating back to 1811-1813 by the sappers Garin and Daret, led to the subsequent preservation of the elongated and compact shape of the barracks, developed on a single covered level and an open-air upper terrace.
Changes to the design of the Montebello Fortress
The internal functional logic remained of the previous project, but the new structure was made more compact by a theory of only five rectangular rooms, with an elongated shape and side by side on the longer side, which presented a barrel roof. Exactly as in the previous drafting of the project, access to the rooms of this barracks took place from the short side through a single distribution corridor, also covered with a barrel, which delimited the external perimeter of the fort, opening with a rifleman crossing over the valley below.
On the side opposite the entrance, each of the five main rooms of the barracks, not having to fear bombing from this side, opened towards the open sea with large windows and double divergent rifle houses. This longitudinal body of the Montebello Fort, which had an east-west development, was associated in the project with two external arms orthogonal to it, in which the distribution corridor itself, after an “L” fold, opened up another four smaller square rooms, also barrel-vaulted and open onto the external moat with a large window and two double crossed fusiliers.
While the Montebello fortification was protected by a moat on the valley side, it opened with a spectacular outcrop carved into the cliff, overlooking the sea. The two transversal buildings, exceeding the depth of the barracks, determined an overhang towards the valley in the form of a bastion, with the sides slightly diverging from the perpendicular, but in any case well referable to the latest generation fortified prototypes, as proposed by Montalembert. The elevation and the sections of this project give us back, as later described for the strong English, an architectural expressiveness that is undoubtedly not devoid of the reflections of French rational neoclassicism.
Strategic and panoramic point of the Fortress
Without denying the pure military functionalism, which in any case remains the dominant expressive trait of the building, we note in the project at least two concessions to the aesthetics and architectural qualification of the building, which are easily identifiable in the frames imposed on the windows and in the string course, which marks along the entire perimeter of the building the level of the top floor is intended to house the artillery, distinguishing the parapet from the underlying masonry.
The riflemen, although motivated by military needs, draw a continuous hatch along the entire perimeter of Fortress Montebello, helping to demonstrate the symmetry sought in the structure in the overall layout. The effect of the barrels that cover all the rooms appears equally classic. Betraying the refined symmetry of the structure was the decentralization of the entrance on the short eastern side, which opened onto the road that climbed from the side of the hill facing Portoferraio. Nor, on the other hand, did the aesthetic licenses take anything away from the austerity of the massive war machine, which, despite being buried almost to the entire first tier of rooms, loomed over the valley with its bulk.
What remains of the Montebello Fortress
Despite the demolition of the structure that followed, many parts remained intact and still today show their threatening grandeur, even if submerged by spontaneous vegetation. Of the perimeter walls of the fortification remains the lower portion of the line of the fusiliers, which, as open furrows, are however still well recognizable today.
Only one section remains of the barrel vault of the distribution corridor, which in any case shows the evident fracture of the masonry at the loins of the vault. It is particularly interesting to analyze the structure of the larger rooms of the barracks. A single room, the first to the east, keeps the vault intact, the subsequent ones increasingly damaged as we move towards the west along the main corridor, are uncovered.
The barrels of Forte Montebello fractured at the kidneys of the arches, so that these rooms still preserve today only the perimeter parts of the roof, while the central part, detached from the rest of the structure along two perfectly straight and parallel fracture lines, is skipped. in block and in several points, around the ruin, whole portions of masonry still perfectly aggregated can be identified. The masonry of the vaults and perimeter walls varies from thicknesses of about 90 cm up to thicknesses of even 150 cm. It is still possible to walk a portion of the upper rampart of the barracks, enjoying an irresistible view on the island of Elba, ranging without limit from the harbor of Portoferraio, to the Italian coast, to the island of Capraia, until you can clearly distinguish Capo Corso.
View 360° Fortress Montebello (Mountain Albero)
How to reach the ruins of the Fortress Mountain Albero
The Fortress is located on the west side of Portoferraio, it can be reached along the road that leads from Ghiaie to Albereto, via the Luigi Einaudi municipal road, where we find the path to reach the ruins of the fortress (500m).