Fort Diate of Exilles – Wikipedia

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The Strong of exilles , located in the municipality of the same name in the Metropolitan City of Turin, it is one of the most important defensive systems of Piedmont, together with the fortified complex of Fenestrelle and that of Vinadio.

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It was used in alternate phases both by the Savoy and by the French. His position at the center of a Hute Susa Valley Streetoia in fact made him a threat to both the armies that descended from the upper valley and for those who dated from the valley fund.

Origins and Middle Ages [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Detail of the fort

The first documents in which the Fort of Exilles is mentioned, still very rudimentary and in the process of defining, date back to the seventh century, when a Novalesa reporter mentions a primitive fortification destroyed by the francs on the Roccione di Exilles. Since 1155 the masters of the fortress are the Besançon Bermonds, Albon’s counts, who needed to militarily protect the road that, their owned, led to Montinevro.

The first description of the castle dates back to 1339: the plant is quadrangular and with more towers, stables and external warehouses, very different from today’s solid and compact stronghold.

From the fifteenth to the eighteenth century [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Between 1494 and 1496 it becomes the storage of ammunition for the French of Charles VIII, the main door is extended to allow the transit of the cannons and many farmers of the place are enrolled by force to defend the stronghold.
In the 16th century it was reinforced with the addition of towers and walls at the disposal of Charles II of Savoy. In 1541 he passed under French domination, but in 1559, following the Cateau-Cambrésis Treaty, he returned to the hands of the Savoy with Emanuele Filiberto. In September 1591 he was occupied, after a brief siege, by the French of Lesdiguières. Two years later, in the spring, he was under siege by the troops of Carlo Emanuele I of Savoy, who regain him over a month and begin other strengthening works, especially in the direction of the upper valley. He is again in French hand in January 1595, after about a month of siege; He will return to the Savoy only in 1708.

In the meantime, more than a century has passed: the French have strengthened the defenses of the fort and used it as a logistical point of primary importance. From 1601, the year of Lyon’s Treaty, imposing restoration works under the guidance of engineer Jean de Beins have modernized the structure of the fort, made insufficient by the advent of artillery.
Among other things, the royal ramp was built, one kilometer long and paved with pebble, which leads to the main entrance, crossed which unravels two steep trenches that lead to the actual citadel, built around the huge courtyard of the Knight, the central nucleus of the construction. Other additions were a chapel (now deconsecrated and used for concerts) and the well, 70 meters deep and made in four years of excavation.

In 1708, during the Spanish succession war, he returned to the Savoy with Vittorio Amedeo II of Savoy, thanks to the warning of the front by the Sabaude troops through Moriana and the hills that put this in connection with Bardonecchia, so that the fort will come attacked by the side of the upper valley. Finally, the treatise of Utrecht will sanction the definitive belonging of the entire Susa valley (and, therefore, also of the Fort of Exilles) to the newly reign of Sicily (which shortly afterwards will become the Kingdom of Sardinia). In 1720 the architect Ignazio Bertola, adopted son of Antonio, to strengthen the fort of Exilles, was commissioned. The works last over six years (end in 1726) and in the end the fort is a jewel of military art. In September 1745, during the Austrian succession war, French troops try to open the way to the low Susa valley by attacking the fort, but they are rejected by the guns of the garrison in command of the captain Papacino D’Antoni. [first]

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From the eighteenth century to today [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

The Fort of Exilles, today.

With the advent of Napoleon Bonaparte, the fort is destined for demolition: this is how the Paris treaty wants, stipulated following the armistice of Cherasco). He will be rebuilt with the return of Piedmont and Savoy to the Kingdom of Sardinia, sanctioned by the Congress of Vienna (1814). The reconstruction lasts from 1818 to 1829: the same pre -existing architecture is re -proposed, updating it only to new military needs. The fort becomes venue and garrison of the homonymous battalion of the 3rd Alpine Regiment. [ without source ]

On September 8, 1943, the Fort of Exilles was definitively abandoned by the army and remains for a long time at the mercy of the vandals and atmospheric events. In 1978 the Piedmont Region acquired the asset from the military state property with loan, with the commitment to provide for the restoration and functional recovery of the monument. The conservative restoration project is then developed, internal and external, aimed at defining an overall structure of the fort such as to constitute the global reference for all subsequent interventions. In April 1996, an agreement was stipulated between the Piedmont Region and the National Museum of the Mountain of Turin for the enhancement and promotion of the Fort of Exilles. The monument and museum areas were open to the public on July 8, 2000.

On October 30, 2019, the property of the Fort definitively passed from the state property to the Piedmont Region. [2]

The strong visa from the country of the same name

The Forte di Exilles is now open, in the past it was the home of two permanent museum areas and two accompanied visit routes characterized by scenic installations designed by the artist Ranchi Ferrero.

In the spaces of the “Cannoniere”, the main fire front of the fort, the “museum area of ​​the Alpine troops” is located: large crystal boys contain forty -four military uniforms that trace the history of the military body of the Alpine troops from birth to our day; Each uniform is worn by a stone soldier of the same rock of the fortress, while forty -one watercolor figures flow at natural height along the exhibition itinerary.

In the “diamond bastion” there is an installation that traces the history of the Fort of Exilles from the first medieval testimonies to the present day, through the exhibition of maps, sketches, drawings, plants and split; At the center of the route, six plastic ones illustrate the evolution of the fort immediately and three -dimensionally, suspended to the ceiling by means of steel cables to give lightness to the preparation and not interrupt the vision of the architectural space.

From the Cavaliere courtyard you descend the ramp of the mules leading to the stables, from here, with a very steep staircase, you reach the “strong bass”. You travel the large moat on which the imposing royal battery, the main fire front of the fort, from the small Caponiera placed in the center of the moat, go up the scale called “del Paradiso”, entirely excavated in the rock, and comes out in the courtyard of the Galere from here through an narrow corridor you reach the penalty cells. The ascent to the courtyard concludes a long ring to discover the various levels of the complex construction.

The iron mask [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Plan in relief of the Fort in 1695 – Scala 1: 1600 ( Paris Museum of Reliefs )

Many legends were born around the fort over the centuries, but perhaps the most famous of all, between historical truth and legend, is that relating to a mysterious character locked up there (the construction also served as a prison) between 1681 and 1687. According to tradition , these could identify with the iron mask, a character whose identity is not known today. The first to raise the problem was Voltaire that, during the short period of stay in the Bastille prison (1717), learned the existence of this mysterious character whose face was always covered by a velvet mask and was always well treated by some guards who had been assigned to his surveillance; Voltaire became passionate about his story, making research he published in one of his books. The permanence of the iron mask at Exilles is also documented by a correspondence, received up to the present day, between the then French minister of war, Marquis of Louvois, and the governor of the Donione di Pinerolo, Saint-Mars, where the mask of Iron stayed before Exilles and from where the governor himself cared for his transfer to Exilles, continuing to follow his prisoner from Pinerolo. The correspondence deals with the expenses incurred for the sustenance (food and clothing) of the mysterious prisoner. From Exilles the iron mask was then translated to the island of Santa Margherita, (the largest of the two islands of Lerino, off the coast of Cannes) and a few years later in the Bastille.

The fort was chosen for the filming of the films:

  • Official site . are Exillesilfore.it . URL consulted on October 31, 2019 (archived by URL Original on 30 October 2019) .
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