Six 12 GRC Ret guns in casemates, four machine guns and a garrison of more than 400 men: Forte Tecci was the largest piece of the Altare stronghold. The guns were later removed and, as far as is known, sent to the front in the First World War, where someone loaded them with ballistite, far more powerful, instead of black powder, and the barrels broke, ending up unusable.
What to see
The Royal Italian Army built the Altare barrier line between 1885 and 1890, along what is now the SS29 road over the Colle di Cadibona, to defend southern Piedmont and the Ligurian Apennine ridge against a land attack. Tecci stands above the Tagliata di Altare fort, on the southern side, and together with the Cascinotto completes the group of three.
Its plan is more complex and larger than the other two: two blocks, one pentagonal, like the Cascinotto, and one triangular, joined by a straight stretch of massive stone blocks pierced by windows and gun embrasures. There are two levels, and the lower one is hidden by a deep ditch that runs right around the fortification. In 1889 the fort also housed the meteorological and seismic observatory of the Altare fortress. Today it is derelict, and television relay equipment has been installed in some of its rooms.
Visiting
You get there from the SS29, which crosses the Colle di Cadibona at 459 metres, the pass conventionally dividing the Alps from the Apennines. Since 1945 the barrier line has belonged to the Italian state, and it is not a museum: no ticket office, no marked route, no lighting. The ditch is deep and the inner rooms are pitch dark, so common sense says stay outside, wear proper boots and leave the underground levels alone. Historical sources record that no shot was ever fired here: what you see is late nineteenth-century military architecture left exactly as it was.
Our editors' tip
We suggest going in the morning, when the low light picks out the stone blocks of the connecting wall, and allowing half a day so you can take in the Tagliata and the Cascinotto as well: only by comparing the three forts does it become clear why Tecci counted for more than the others. Then turn towards the sea: Savona is eleven kilometres away and almost five hundred metres below, and that view alone explains the choice of site.