Along with Crocetta and Fort San Giuliano, San Martino is, architectually, the most modern of the Genoese forts. In its case, the fortification was not conceived to be a dominating structure, but was hidden in the hillside, surrounded by a moat, and almost completely hidden by an embankment.

The oldest information about a fort in San Martino of Albaro, goes back to 1322, when the Guelphs, "fought strongly against the towers of the place...and...then won against its defenders, sending it up in flames". The actual construction of the fort began around 1820 and ended around 1832, as a follow-up to that ideal fortification, which, at the time, was Fort Santa Tecla. The complex was presented as a gigantic embanked rectangle, the barracks, however only occupy two-thirds of the western side. The heavy artillary was placed in the back of the emankment.

At the end of the 1920´s the fort was utilised as an anti-aircraft artillary base. On January 14, 1944 in the moat under the drawbridge, eight partisans were slain, one of which was Romeo Guglielmetti. After the Liberation it was occupied by many homeless families, and was completely abandoned in 1952. To prevent people from accessing the fort, the drawbridge was sarificed, and it was closed. The modern grafitti on the inside walls, however, shows how useless this was. In 1990 a private citizen moved into the fort, partially restoring it, but even with this, the historical structure is still in pessimistic conditions.

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