The fortress of the Museum of the Alps
At the narrowest point of the lower Aosta Valley, where the Dora Baltea flows through a gorge between rock walls, the Forte di Bard stands on a rocky spur above the small medieval village of Bard, controlling the road that has always connected the Po plain to the Alpine passes. A fortress has stood here since the Middle Ages, and in May 1800 it blocked for about two weeks the advance of Napoleon's army, which was descending from the Great St Bernard towards Italy: the small Austrian garrison resisted so fiercely that Napoleon, after taking it, had it razed to the ground. The present fortress was rebuilt by the House of Savoy between 1830 and 1838, a massive complex on several levels, among the best examples of nineteenth-century military architecture, which was never attacked.
After a long restoration, the fort reopened in 2006 as a great cultural centre, reached by a series of panoramic glass lifts. It houses the Museo delle Alpi, an interactive museum dedicated to the nature, history and people of the Alps, the Museo delle Fortificazioni e delle Frontiere, the Prisons, with the original cells, and the Museo dei Ragazzi, for children, as well as important temporary exhibitions of art and photography. The fortress has also been used as a film set, for example for "Avengers: Age of Ultron". The village of Bard below, one of the "Borghi più belli d'Italia", preserves a beautiful medieval street with stone houses, and a short distance away, at Donnas, a stretch of the Roman road carved into the rock can be seen.
Tip: take the panoramic lifts up to the fort; check the programme of temporary exhibitions; walk through the medieval village.
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