The Entrenched Camp of the Colle di Tenda

The Entrenched Camp of the Colle di Tenda - d045f31The forts belonging to the Colle di Tenda camp (Colle Alto, Margheria, Pepino, Taborda, Giaure and Pernante), built between 1877 and 1888, with great expenditure of energy and financial resources, became obsolete within a few years because of the progress of artillery and shells. Active until the beginning of the First World War, when they were disarmed to take artillery to the Austrian front, in the Second World War they were all relegated to stores and ammunition dumps, and sometimes to shelter troops; they were replaced by more modern concrete constructions forming part of the "Vallo Alpino" defensive system. This territory passed to the French following the peace treaty of 1947, and their original Italian denomination was changed.[Dario Gariglio and Mauro Minola - Le Fortificazioni delle Alpi del Mare - L'Arciere Ed., Pp.35-38]
The Fort Central - d163f43Fort Central (thus renamed even though its original name was Forte Alto, which later became Forte Colle Alto), the fulcrum of the defensive system of Colle di Tenda, was armed with 10 cannons, two mortars and 4 machine-guns. Completed in 1880, the Forte Colle Alto was flanked by an impressive defensive barracks able to accommodate about 300 men. It also had stables, various logistic services (infirmary, stores, ammunition deposits), a cableway connected it to Panice sottana in the valley to supply the fort even in the roads were snow-bound .[Dario Gariglio and Mauro Minola - Le Fortificazioni delle Alpi del Mare - L'Arciere Ed., Pp.35-38]