The Fortifications of Sant’Andrea and Carpenedo

Presentation

1) Presentation

 Fort Carpenedo  and Fort  S. Andrea can be considered as a kind of summary of what was the Venetian fortified system during the centuries. In fact, since Serenissima’s age, until the First World War, fortifications.  had been thought and built to create a defensive belt around Venice. All this fortified system, placed as a ring around the city, was the real “Maritime Defensive Square of Venice”: almost 70 fortresses (some defences by the sea along shores, some forts on the lagoon and the front by the mainland with the “Entrenched Camp of Mestre”) turned Venice in one of the most protected city around the entire Adriatic Sea.

Placed almost on the opposite sides of the defensive square, S. Andrew’s Fort and Carpenedo Fort belonged to front by the sea (the first one) and to the front by the land (the last one).

S. Andrew’s Fort, built with  a project of the Veronese  architect Michele Sanmicheli in the beginning of XVI century, during the richest period of the S. Marco’s Republic, guards the main access to Venice: the “bocca di porto” of S.Nicolò. During those years, the mainland wasn’t a military risk for Venice: the wideness of the lagoon behind the city, within all its troubles and difficulties of navigations, was sufficient in defending Venice against the enemies. Instead, by the  sea, the lagoon city could be attacked by Turkish fleet, that was in very expansion during that period. The fort, faced to medieval Castelvecchio, had two long curtains of gunners just upon the water, which were almost invincible. But Saint Andrew’s Fort hadn’t only military functions, because this fort was built with the majesty and the beauty of a very main portal of a city even despite Venice was proud of its lack of walls and of its safety that was guaranteed by its own strength and by the surrounding natural defences. For this reason the line of the gunners is interrupted by a real solemn portal that is not very useful for military tasks, but this portal makes the fort a very important monument to welcome people from the sea, also today.

Instead,  Fort Carpenedo was built at the ending of the XIX century, following the standards of the polygonal forts called “Tunkler”, and it was placed in defending of the North-Eastern part by the land to access to Venice. Unlike Saint Andrew’s Fort, Carpenedo’s one has nothing of solemn or beautiful in the architectonical way, beside the accessing portal on the behind of the building.

This fort represents the transition between the architectonical defensive medieval art, based on the rocks essentially, and the new and modern architectonical way in building forts, where rationality and development of the armaments create complex structures with positions in wheel, hiding positions, armours of steel, pourings  of concrete and ferroconcrete. This kind of fortification had a pivotal role in the battles of the fronts all around Europe during  World War One.

2) ENTRENCHED CAMP OF MESTRE

With the defeat of Republic of Venice, the inviolability of the lagoon ended. If, as already happened in 1509, an enemy army had arrived at the limits of mainland, it would have reached easily the centre of Venice, due to the increasing of artillery’s rage. The new rulers –before Austrian and then French-, who knew this problem, understood how would be very useful giving Venice a defensive system in mainland. Between 1805 and 1809 Forte Marghera was built, with its two dependances that, later, would be named Forte manin and Forte Rizzardi. This is the first centre of Entrenched camp of Mestre.

After the annexation of Venice to Italian Kingdom in 1866, the lagoon city became a really important centre in the new state, with its port and its big arsenal, due to the strategic and defensive needs of Italian army and its political rulers.

In these years also Marghera Fort was judged not sufficient in protecting Venice, because the new armors had a wider rage than the previous ones, therefore it was built a new line of fortifications. Between 1886 and 1892, Gazzera Fort, Tron Fort and Carpenedo Fort enriched the defensive system of the mainland. All together, these fortifications, set up a very useful system and they started up to enclose the city as they should be a kind of medieval walls. All over Europe, during this period, the discussion was very harsh between supporters of the construction of impressive fortified barriers and supporters of more flexible defensive systems. Italy found itself in the middle of this discussion.

With their old-fashioned aspects and their not sufficient possibilities to keep out enemies from Venice, Mestre’s nineteenth-century forts were substituted by an outer ring of new fortresses, called “Rocchi”, that were more mordern and richer of instruments, built with concrete and armoured domes. In such a way, in 1910 the finally array of the entrenched camp of Mestre was completed and it counted eleven forts and a powder magazine. It would have never been interested by battles, during First World War. After a valuation of its inefficient defensive possibilities, this system of forts was dismantled to obtain more men and arms against the enemy lines.