Stunning Fort of Bard: A Journey through Napoleon's Passage

Piedmont and Valle d'Aosta regions have always been borderlands. A large part of adventurers and conquerors of all kinds arrived in Italy in search of fortune by crossing the Alps…

Piedmont and Valle d'Aosta regions have always been borderlands. Many adventurers and conquerors of all kinds arrived in Italy in search of fortune by crossing the Alps. This is why the topic of fortifications and various war events is practically endless. These events and adventures also highlighted characters still remembered today in popular memory. One of these famous characters was Napoleon, to whom I dedicated my previous post.

This is the second part of my research. The first (free) part you can find here Memories Of The Passage Of Napoleon's Troops Along The Fort Of Bard

In summary, we said that Napoleon was wrong to choose the Great San Bernardo pass to enter Italy (as one of his friends said later, just after his death). Once they arrived at the Bard Fort (at the time it was still a castle) the troops stopped for 14 days due to the resistance of the small (compared to the number of French soldiers) garrison of the fortress. 

I visited Bard yesterday because the weather finally became good, and I present an in-depth analysis of that article directly from “real life”.

If you happen to visit Bard one day, remember that it is a hole where there is almost always strong and cold wind, which is why it is colder than in other places even a few kilometers away. Luckily, I had a warm scarf to cover my shoulders, but there wasn't a hat… But I wanted to finish this research anyway 😂

The village of Bard and also that of Hone are practically open-air museums. Made to please tourists, with all directions and so on. Looking at the bridge, you will never know that it is of Roman origins and was the only possibility to cross the river until at least Napoleon's time. You can get here not only with a car but with a train, too. I left my car in Hone where there are enough parking lots and was in Bard in 5 minutes, I think.