The history of the Genoese forts is unfortunatly confusing. There have been so many articles, essays, books and monographies published, that a newcomer would have serious difficulty in deciphering the true facts from the fanciful ones. How did we fall into this confusion? Let's follow the evolution of the bibliography.

The first person to try and write a complete history of our fortifications was a Lieutenant of infantry, who, in 1875, gathered all his research in a manuscript (which, it seems, he wrote three times), not intended for the public. It was however used as a base for successive "official" publications.

The first of these publications is from 1939, in full fascist regime. Most of these antique fortresses were still military zones, in such that they hosted anti-aircraft artillery, and maybe the text was influenced by the censure.

The author, a celebrated scholar on Genoese antiquity, confuses much of the historical information on the fortifications, and this makes the text unreliable. Thirty years had to pass before a noted journalist decided to tell the story of the Genoese forts his way. His style was vaguely poetic, with rhetorical lines, but with rather exact historical information.

Three years before that, an architect from the Superintendence started to collect in-depth information on our fortresses, consulting old and dusty documents. In 1971, the result of this colossal research was realized with the publication of a book which, also thanks to its elegant cover, had such sucess as to be reprinted for three editions. For the first time the original designs appeared, along with photos and documents of the fortresses. The author concentrates on the critical analysis of the architectural structures ,and doesnt tell much about the history.

In 1976, there follow three little volumes of the series "Guides of Genoa"; they show three different itineraries to visit our fortresses, provided with historical resumés.

In 1983 another important book was published, divided into two volumes. This book is valuable because it traces up the history of the forts up to the genoese risings of 1849, with a special regard for their pre-history. For example it gives a full description of the eighteenth century trenches, which are almost completely unknown to the public.

In 1984 a new book on the fortresses came out. The author is a very keen scholar, well acquainted with the history from the Middle Ages up to the eighteenth century. The volume was, however, published without his knowledge, after he gaves notes that were to be revised and corrected.

The last two publications where brought out in 1992. The first one is a guide on the Urban Park of the Walls, realized by the Office for the Gardens and Forests of the city of Genoa. It contains the historical essentials of the fortifications located in that area. The second one is a documented study about the engineers who worked on the Ligurian fortresses until 1814.

Having such a wide bibliography at their disposal, journalists often write articles which report a diversity of news, picked up here and there from the books.

The most important monographies (1971, 1983, 1984), were published in a particular period: many documents, in fact, where not accessible to the public, while others where kept in unheard-of archives.

Moreover, not all documents existing on the forts are mentioned in the archive catalogues, because their amount is enormous. Anyway, the catalogues of the documents are conserved in six principal archives located in Genoa, Turin and Rome.

Many years of research are necessary to follow the historical evolution of the fortifications; besides, such researches do not follow a continuum, but are divided in time.

In fact, until today, logical assumptions have often compensated a possible lack of information.

The author of this site, fascinated by the forts since he was a child, has always felt curious about the contradictions arising from the books. In 1985 he started to act concretely, in order to clarify such discrepancies. He patiently started to analyze the bibliographies cited in the books, finding, not without difficulties, new important documents. These documents, he believes, may partly rewrite the history of the study route on our fortresses followed until today.

For this reason he is writing a book himself (of which this site represents only a short sinthesis), full of novelties, news, unpublished designs and curiosities.

Yet, the book may never come out: publishers are not much interested in this subject; besides, the author is an unknown one.

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