Hidden Treasure – Forte Sant’alessandro

I went to Lake Garda in Italy last year and stayed in the small town Riva Del Garda. While here I spent time trekking mountains, walking around the lakes and of course eating amazing Italian food and wine. 

The reason for this post is because while I trekking I randomly came across an old fort from the World War 1 era when Italy declared war on Austria. 

I found a description online about the fort: When Italy declared war on Austria in 1915, the southern part of Trentino came to be part of the front line. Expecting a new conflict with Italy, the area had been heavily fortified on the Austrian starting as early as 1860. In the Garda area, five “generations” of alpine forts can be found. The fortification buildings around Riva del Garda include the Tagliata del Ponale, Bellavista Fort, the battery on the shore, the San Nicolò Fort, the Garda Fort, the Midway Battery, the Sant’Alessandro Fort, two mortar batteries on Mount Brione, the Tombio Fort and the two Forts at Nago.

The most fascinating part of this fort was the inside. When I walked past the fort I didn’t think I would’ve been able to enter. However, there was 2 Italian gentleman standing out the entrance who encouraged me to go in. Sounds dodgy but when I went through the entrance the place was lit up with neon lights. I found this fascinating because the building was in the middle of this biome which took around an hour and a half to get to. 

Unfortunately, the information was in Italian about the installation. I was also unable to find any information online about the installation. 

Maybe someone out there in the online universe knows what the installation was about! 

Please see the images of the installations below.