Civizzano Alto: The Oddly Placed Austrian Tower in the Mountains of Italy

Hovering above Trento, surrounded by a mountainous terrain in Italy, lies the Civizzano Fortified Complex. This complex, constructed as a part of the second round of fortifications, shots up between 1868 and 1876. The altitudinous fort, named Civizzano Alto, was designed to defend Trento from an Eastern invasion. Quite strikingly, prior to the Austro-Hungarian Civizzano Alto, a Roman castle and a medieval fortress occupy the same site. This modern-day sprawl sports merely two stores with sparse gun ports. Fortified with a ditch on its front and left flanks, and a heavy concentration of barbed wire, the Civizzano Alto boasts five 15cm M61 fortress guns and three 12cm Howitzers. Managed by three officers and 138 enlisted men during wartime, the weapons of Civizzano Alto were withdrawn to the nearby mountains by 1915.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons