Home -> My mountain trips -> June 26th, 2005 -> Picture # 5
5. Entrance to Forte Giaura (208 kB) [Index] - [<<] - [>>] - [All for June 26th, 2005] - []
Although the intial plan called for Rocca dell'Abisso (2755m) I decided to stop at Forte Giaura (2250m approx; in French called Fort Jaure). One can see to the right the trail winding up to the summit.

This is the westernmost of a chain of 6 major and several smaller forts built by Italy around 1880-1890 in order to protect its border with France. Normally they form a square 40m wide, surrounded by a moat several meters deep; they're at heights between 1800 and 2300 meters. Four of the six major forts are on the ridge; when they were built they were in Italian territory but since 1947 they're in French territory, the official border being only some meters away. Anyway the border itself is on paper only; the only evidence on the field are some stone markers. The forts haven't been used since WW2 but they look remarkably good given their ageo - 110 to 120 years.

Here the front and the entrance are visible. In order to go in one would have used a mobile bridge, long gone.