The site was originally occupied by the Bastia di Promontorio, a fortress which goes back to before 1478 and of which there is no sure information regarding the structure. The annalists describe it summarily as a bastion but it was probably simply a tower, maybe surrounded by a moat. During the construction of the Nuova Mura, the antique fortification was demolished to build a tannaille, a simple appendage to the defense line with the function of a battery. During the Napoleonic period the opera underwent a first modification. In the period between 1815 and 1830, they began work to enlarge it, with the construction of a large ground floor. On half of this, from 1831 barracks were dug which descended down two floors. The access gallery to the fort was dug into the surrounding wall. In front, a small square gives access to the drawbridge, workable only from the Mura. The works finished around 1836. During the revolts of 1849, caused by a betrayal, the complex fell into the hands of the Pedmontese.

The Tenaglia is one of those few forts that wasn´t abandoned in 1914, even if, probably, it was deprived of its heavy artillary. Around 1938 the Milizia completely modified the stations substituting them with four squares in armoured cement, and an equal amount of anti-aircraft equipment. After September 8, 1943, the fort was occupied by German soldiers; one wing of the barracks was gravely damaged by bombs. In 1945 this fort was one of the last to give up: in Genoa the Liberation took place (practically) on April 24, the Germans barracaded in the fort gave up only two days later. At the end of the conflict it was abandoned. It remained disinhabited until the begining of the ´70´s, and it isn´t rare to find some antique testimony of its military past (Key Photo of the artillary storage).

The access to the barracks, situated midway through the structure, is accessed by a ramp of stairs: these connect all of the successive floors. Every level of the barracks is composed of two long rooms.

The fort, around which circulate strange legends, is actually owned privatly, and because of this it it not easily accessable.

 Other Images:

 The remains of the logistic service on the ground floor.

 Signatures of the antique sentinals on the walls.

 Opening of the access gallery to the Fort

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