Forte di Exilles description and photos - Italy: Val di Susa (Topic)

Forte di Exilles description and photos - Italy: Val di Susa. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photographs and a map showing the nearest significant objects. The title in English is Forte di Exilles.

Photo and description

Fort Exilles, a huge fortress in the Val di Susa, which makes an indelible impression, was opened to the public in 2000 thanks to the cooperation of the government of the Piedmont region and the National Museum "Montana Cai Torino ". A fine example of Franco-Savoyard military architecture, the fortress itself has now been turned into a museum. Two excursion routes allow visitors to get acquainted with the history of this structure: one, laid inside the fort, introduces the different levels of the fortress and its functions, and the second offers to admire the surrounding landscapes. Stone soldiers, sculptures, paintings and photographs accompany visitors on their journey back in time and tell the fort's centuries-old history.

For the first time, a fortified structure on a rock on the right bank of the Dora River is mentioned in documents from 1155, when the Counts of Albon controlled the road leading to Monginevro. This place was already of strategic military importance, and Exilles was the easternmost outskirts of the count's possessions. In 1339, a real defensive complex towered on the rock - this was a rare example of the so-called "roadside castle". In the second half of the 16th century, the castle became a bone of contention between Catholics and reformers, who wanted to control the province of Dauphine, which in those years was located on both sides of the Alps. After the conclusion of the Peace Treaty of Lyon in 1601, Fort Exilles was for a long time out of sight of international politics. Only in 1708, the Savoyard army under the leadership of Victor Amedeus II was able to capture the entire Val di Bardonecchia and the ancient fortress. And the Piedmontese conquests of the Dora and Cizone alpine valleys, followed by their transfer to the rule of the Savoy dynasty in 1713, determined the new strategic positions of the entire Savoyard state. Fort Exilles was significantly modernized and rebuilt, and its defenses were facing France. In the second half of the 18th century, a number of reconstructions were carried out here. Despite this, in 1796, French troops razed the fortress to the ground, and only in 1818-1829 the fort was rebuilt in the form in which we see it today - in accordance with the norms of military architecture of that time.

After the Second World War, Fort Exilles was abandoned. All, what could be taken away or taken away has been plundered, from wooden window frames to electric cables. Only in 1978, the fortress was acquired by the Piedmont government, which immediately developed a plan to restore it, and in 2000 a museum was opened in Fort Exilles.

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Topic: Forte di Exilles description and photos - Italy: Val di Susa.