The existence of a castle in Gavi has been documented since 973. With an imperial diploma dated May 30, 1191, Henry VI, son of Frederick I Barbarossa, granted the castle and the village as a fief to the Republic of Genoa. In 1418, following military events, the fief passed under the lordship of the Visconti of Milan; after other changes of ownership, in 1528 it returned to the Republic of Genoa, which held it until 1815, the year in which the ancient republic was annexed to the Kingdom of Sardinia.
Over the centuries the castle took on the appearance of a powerful fortress. The first radical interventions were carried out in 1540 by Giovanni Maria Olgiati, a military engineer in the service of the Republic of Genoa, who designed and completely rebuilt the city walls, constructing new bastions and consolidating the original structure.
In the 17th century the fort was further expanded with the intervention of the Dominican friar Vincenzo da Fiorenzuola, born Gaspare Maculani. He, known for having been the inquisitor in the trial against Galileo Galilei, was, besides a clergyman, a great expert in military architecture. The works for transforming the building into a large fortress were completed between 1626 and 1629, but further interventions followed until the dawn of the 19th century. On the east side the “redoubt” of Monte Moro was built, connected to the fort by a gallery; inside were erected quarters for soldiers and officers, cisterns, powder magazines, guardhouses and parade grounds, all with the help of the most famous military engineers of the time, from Stefano Scaniglia to Domenico Orsolino, from Pietro Morettini to Pierre De Cotte.
In 1859 the ancient Genoese fortress was disarmed and deprived of its historical identity to be transformed into a civil prison; during the First World War it became a military prison. In the interval between the two wars, in some embankments of the fortress experimental vineyards were planted by the Anti-Phylloxera Consortium. With the Second World War the fort became a place of detention again; in 1946 it was handed over to the Superintendence for Architectural Heritage of Piedmont, which since 1978 has initiated a constant and progressive work of restoration and safeguarding of this rare example of military architecture.
Information on Forte di Gavi
Via al Forte, 14
15066 Gavi (Alessandria)
0143 643554
sbap-no.gavi@beniculturali.it
https://www.polomusealepiemonte.beniculturali.it
Source: MIBACT
