Located at 3,130 meters above sea level at the summit of Mount Chaberton in the Cerces Massif of the French Alps, the fortified complex known as the Chaberton Battery is the highest military fort in Europe. Built between 1898 and 1910 by the Kingdom of Italy, it played a relevant, though brief, role during World War II, before being handed over to France after the conflict.
The idea of building a fortification on the summit of Mount Chaberton dates back to the late 19th century. At that time, Italy was part of the Triple Alliance with Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which led it to develop plans to reinforce its defenses against France, with whom it had had past border conflicts.
The Chaberton peak, strategically located in the upper valley of the Susa River and overlooking the Mont Cenis Alpine pass, was considered an ideal point for positioning a fort. Its great height of over 3,000 meters, difficult access by land, and its ability to monitor the surrounding valleys made it an almost impregnable defensive position with the military technology of the time. Moreover, its elevation placed it out of reach of the artillery of the era, which had a maximum range of only a few kilometers.

Construction work on what would become the Chaberton Battery began in 1898 under the direction of Major Engineer Luigi Pollari Maglietta. The first task was to build a winding mountain road nearly 10 kilometers long to connect the small village of Fenils, located at 2,000 meters on the slopes of Mount Chaberton, with the broad, flat summit where the fort would be erected. Without the road, any attempt to build and supply a fort on the remote summit would have been impossible.
In 1910, after 12 years of work, the battery was fully completed, although by 1906 it was already equipped with eight modern rapid-fire 149 mm cannons mounted on large, rotating armored turrets. These turrets, specifically designed for the Chaberton Battery, were manufactured by the prestigious British armaments company Armstrong Whitworth and rotated via a hand-cranked gear mechanism.
Each turret, over 7 meters tall, could rotate 300 degrees on its central axis, allowing it to aim and fire in any direction. The turrets are spaced about 6 meters apart, and inside, a spiral metal staircase enabled access to the cannons.

Due to their inability to be reached by enemy cannon or mortar fire (a fact that would change during World War II), the turrets had no protection other than a light front armor of 5 centimeters at most, intended to protect soldiers from shrapnel. Their design was intended to bombard military positions at a considerable distance in enemy territory, particularly the French city of Briançon.
During World War I, however, the fort was deactivated and disarmed, with its powerful cannons transferred to the eastern front, where Italy was fighting against the Austro-Hungarian Empire. During those years, there was no permanent garrison in the fort, which was reactivated shortly after the end of the Great War in 1918.
By then, however, the development of mortar artillery had rendered the battery highly vulnerable to possible attacks from lower positions in the adjacent valleys. This led to a comprehensive renovation in the 1930s, intending to move all sensitive facilities, such as barracks, an infirmary, and ammunition depots, to a labyrinth of underground tunnels and galleries excavated directly into the mountain rock. This way, the fort would be less exposed to enemy impacts.

It was finally during World War II that the Chaberton Battery entered combat for the first and only time. Following the declaration of war by Mussolini’s fascist Italy on Third Republic France in June 1940, the fort’s cannons opened fire on French military positions in nearby valleys, though without causing significant damage. At that time, the garrison included about 340 men under the command of Captain Spartaco Bevilacqua.
In the nearby French fort of Janus, one can see a surveillance tower where the steel of the turret was partially deformed, though not pierced.
The day after the Italian bombardment, on June 21, 1940, French artillery finally responded to the attack with mortars and fired four massive Schneider 280 mm shells.

The accuracy of the French guns was deadly: within hours, they achieved direct hits that destroyed six of the eight Italian turrets, killing nine soldiers and wounding fifty others. The cable car supplying the fort was also destroyed.
Given the severity of the damage, the Italian high command was forced to withdraw the garrison and abandon the fort just a month after entering the war. With the unexpected and swift French armistice agreed with Germany a few days later, on June 25, 1940, the fort permanently ceased operations.
After Italy’s surrender in 1943 and the end of World War II in 1945, the entire Chaberton mountain and the fortified complex (which until then was in the Italian municipality of Cesana Torinese) passed into French hands, incorporated into its territory through the Paris Treaties of 1947.

Abandoned for decades, the fort was dismantled, and all metal structures, doors, windows, and even electrical cables were removed in 1957. Thirty years later, in 1987, the road connecting it to Fenils was closed to traffic.
Today, the spectacular ruins of the battery, perched on the mountainside in the French municipality of Montgenèvre, are visited both in summer and winter by mountaineers and military history enthusiasts. Mount Chaberton is easily recognizable by its pyramidal shape and flat summit.
Access is possible on foot, by bicycle, or via a via ferrata from the French side, starting from the Cesana Claviere Tibetan bridge. Access to the military road with motor vehicles is strictly prohibited. The remains of the turrets destroyed in 1940 still dominate the landscape. Kilometers of underground tunnels and galleries also remain, many of them partially collapsed or blocked by ice, requiring special equipment to explore.
This article was first published on our Spanish Edition on September 21, 2023: El espectacular fuerte construido por los italianos en lo alto del Monte Chaberton, en los Alpes, es el más alto de Europa
SOURCES
Ministerio de Cultura de Francia, Le Fort de Chaberton, fort d’altitude nouvellement protégé dans les Hautes-Alpes
Ligne Maginot, L’obus de 280 mm
Fortificazione.com, Un forte, una storia
Wikipedia, Batteria dello Chaberton
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