Forte Quezzi

Forte Quezzi sits at an elevation of 285 meters on Colle della Calcinara and offers wide views over the Bisagno Valley and the Quezzi Valley. The history of this fortress is closely tied to the defense of Genoa. Construction first began in 1747, after a threat from Austro-Piedmontese troops. But a lack of funds and planning problems left the project unfinished, and by the beginning of the 19th century the structure stood as little more than a ruin. It was General Massena who, during the siege of 1800, recognized the site's strategic importance and had work urgently resumed. Legend has it that the fortress was completed in just three days and nights. During the Napoleonic era in 1809, French funding gave it a stone bastion and a two-story barracks with a terrace.

After the Kingdom of Sardinia annexed Genoa in 1815, only minor improvements followed. Military assessments in the following decades increasingly judged the complex to be worthless, and it eventually fell into disrepair. A last attempt to take the fortress during a Mazzinian revolt in 1857 failed. In World War I the grounds were handed over to private individuals, while in World War II they were reworked: the upper floor was demolished to make room for six 76 mm anti-aircraft guns used for the city's air defense.

Today Forte Quezzi is a largely dilapidated ruin left to its own devices. All that remains recognizable of the original structure are the surrounding walls and parts of the barracks' ground floor, which are filled with earth and rubble. The former drawbridge and the interior furnishings have disappeared. Today the site serves mainly as pasture for sheep. Nearby stands the better-preserved Torre Quezzi from 1820, which is also used by shepherds and is considered a habitat for the rare European tarantula mite.