POGGIO GRANDE BATTERY

 

 

To visit the Poggio Grande Battery, from Zuccarello we must continue along State Road N° 582 until we pass Castelvecchio di Rocca Barbena. From there we must continue in the Balestrino – Toirano direction. Once we reach the saddle that separates Zuccarello Valley from Toirano Valley, we abandon the main road by taking the unpaved road to the Monte Croce Sanctuary. The vehicle must be parked approximately a kilometre after, when the road sides a small pass, after which we reach the old military road leading to the Battery. The Battery is completely invisible on the hilltop. Only a small wall can be seen, which, when seen from far away hints at the presence of the complex.

The fortification has an S-shaped perimeter, and is fenced in by a moat which has now been completely invaded by the vegetation. It is made up of one-storey barracks located on the gorge; in the back a courtyard separates it from the artillery emplacements, which can be reached by a upward slope. The inside is well conserved, and maybe, due to its hidden position, it shows very few signs of vandalism. The rooms are very dry; this has permitted the conservation, for example, of the old flooring, and numerous original writings on the walls (which are still there today us). Some passages are difficult , however, due to the thick vegetation.

Accessing the interior is possible through an entrenchment slope, which finishes by the access  portal , where the name of the building was originally written. On the bricks at the two sides  of the door, signatures carved by the soldiers can be read. Both on the right and on the left of the entrance, the windows open up on the internal rooms. The inside was reached by passing the original metallic door, by a wooden bridge which crossed a defence pit, located after the door; this has been recently dismantelled in order to prohibit access. Now, some shakey logs have been placed, in order to make access easier. We would like to remind the reader that this is very dangerous, therefore we would like to suggest that an eventual visit is done by passing through the connecting walls of the moat. Once we pass the entrance we find the demolished room which was once that of the Corpo di Guardia (the guard). In the barracks the detached guard facilities, among which (to the left upon entering the building): the kitchen with the underground cistern, the small storeroom, the waterpump for the cistern water, and part of its mechanism. In front of the entrance, we find the rooms for "propellant manufacturing" and  "projectile loading"; inside these rooms, we find traces of the room illumination, which can be reached by the back interspace.

To the left of the entrance we find the troop dormitory. The rooms still have original writings which help us know that each room had seven beds. In front of the dormitory, under the access ramp to get to the artillery emplacements, we find the latrines. In the last room, a staircase leads us through a humid tunnel dug into the rock, and to a room, noticeably detached from the building, which has some characteristics typical of powder magazines, but is located in an area which is too humid. The tunnel continues past the room, getting tighter and tighter, and its lower access is closed by a grate. Next to the last room, we find the access to the powder magazine, which we can recognize by the writing as well as by the room’s characteristics.

In front of the main entrance to the building, an upward slope leads us to the artillery emplacements. The building could have been armed with 12 pieces of artillery. The emplacements were interspersed with the ready locker rooms, which could be accessed by the stairs. Inside of these we can find traces of the landing.

From this edifice, which was finished in 1897, all of the surrounding valleys could be dominated. Its goal was to stop the enemy from reaching the sea. 

 

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