The Montalbano Fortress, an early report about a lost fortification in the Gulf of La Spezia

The research proposed here is another tile that contributes to the documentation of the rich mosaic of modern fortifications of the Gulf of La Spezia counting on an extraordinary heritage of 42 buildings and many more accessory settlements built to defend the Maritime Military Arsenal at the end of the XIXth century. As part of a complex system that sprinkles the entire gulf, the former Montalbano fortress represents the central and biggest architecture of the landward front. The proposed contribution will bring to the attention the first report about the architecture and the landscape setup of the Montalbano Fortress, investigating its true extension and the articulation of its complex spaces, now hidden by the woods after its abandonment. The very large size, the overall good conditions of most of the buildings, and the wilderness due to a vegetal recolonization, make this settlement very interesting and challenging in terms of documentation, restoration, and reuse strategy as a public space for the city. This contribution will share and present the state of knowledge about this "lost" and neglected structure to prefigure an inclusive and sustainable process of landscape regeneration.