Forte di Bard

The Forte di Bard is a mighty 19th-century fortress guarding the valley entrance to the Aosta Valley. Today it houses, among other things, the Museum of the Alps and changing exhibitions; panoramic lifts open up the complex. The fortress also became known as a film location.

Highlights

• Mighty 19th-century fortress
• Museum of the Alps
• Panoramic lifts and exhibitions
• Well-known film location

Good to know

Practical info

Background & History

At the entrance to the Aosta Valley, where the valley floor narrows to a defile, the Forte di Bard commands a rock barrier that controlled the way into the valley as early as Roman times. Over this narrow point ran the old road that connected Italy with the passes of the Great and Little St Bernard and thus with the north, which is why the place has always been of military importance. A first fortification is attested early, but the rock barrier inscribed itself into the memory of Europe above all when Napoleon’s army was held up here in 1800 on its way across the Alps.

Out of annoyance at this resistance, Napoleon had the old fortress razed. The present structure arose only in the 19th century under the House of Savoy, as a mighty, tiered complex of several works lying one above the other, which enclose the rock like a stone crown. For a long time the fortress fell into decay, before it was elaborately restored and made into a place of culture and museums. Anyone who today glides up the terraces in the glass lifts looks out over the vineyards and castles of the Aosta Valley and understands why this barrier was regarded for centuries as the key to the valley.