Fort de Bard seen from the northwest.

Descending from the Great St. Bernard, you arrive at the town of Aosta, where Bonaparte had his headquarters 22-25 May 1800. This tourist capital of the scenic Valle d'Aosta region is a good place to find overnight accommodation. We stayed at a spacious campground just east of town on the banks of the Dora Baltea river. The river valley forms a natural corridor leading east and then southeast toward the Po.

The village road (below). The fort from the west end of the village (right).

The modern traveller can save time by accessing the Autostrada A5 (direction Torino) which will bring you down to Bard in about half an hour. It is important to take the Verres exit and follow the slow local road (S26) down the last few kilometers to appreciate the looming menace of the fort and its particular geographic setting. A steep granite knob rears up about 200 meters in the center of the valley, which here narrows with sheer cliffs on either side.

Twentieth-Century engineering has blasted a roadway along the south edge of the knob and a tunnel for the Autostrada, but in 1800 the only passage was through the single narrow street of the village huddled under the north walls of the fort. Infantry could filter through the mountain trails and bypass the fort with some difficulty. Artillery and caissons had no alternative route.

The village road.

The French advance guard, arriving on 19 May 1800, found the Fort de Bard strongly held by Captain Baron von Bernkopf and about 400 grenadiers of the Kinsky Regiment, with 17 guns. The first assault on the evening of 21 May, spearheaded by the 58th Ligne, occupied the village but was beaten back from the walls of the fort. A first attempt to pass artillery through the village in the early hours of 22 May was stopped by a canister barrage from the alert garrison. The second attempt on 23 May also failed.

At midnight 23-24 May, under cover of a heavy rainstorm, the wheels muffled with straw and the street covered with a layer of dung, the French managed to sneak through the first of an eventual six field cannon that would pass the fort. On 25 May Bonaparte himself planned and directed another assault on the fort, which was repulsed with heavy casualties.

Casemates of the lower fort, seen from the village road.

Chabran's division and the remainder of the French artillery settled in for a regular siege, finally forcing the surrender of the Fort de Bard on 1 June 1800. The heroic defense by Bernkopf's garrison caused a dangerous weakness in the available French artillery for a critical week, and came close to upsetting Bonaparte's plans for the reconquest of Italy.

Arriving in Bard by Route S26 from the north, it is easy to miss the entrance to the old village road on the left, which looks like a rather small driveway. While it is possible to drive partway up the hill, and I did, it would be wiser to park a few hundred paces west along S26 and hike up.

The Fort de Bard seen from the east end of the village (above).

Standing exposed at the west and east ends of the village under the glare of the casemates, it is easy to imagine the terror of trying to manhandle a three-thousand-pound behemoth of an 8-pounder along the road under hostile fire. However, in the center of the village the substantial stone walls of the houses completely shelter the road from the view and the direct fire of the fort.

View from the Fort de Bard over the village and westward up the valley of the Dora Baltea. Note the lack of a direct line-of-sight from the fort into the narrow street almost completely overhung by the houses of the village.

At the time of our visit in July 1999 the interior of the Fort de Bard was closed to visitors and undergoing extensive restoration. It is a good bet that the authorities plan to have the fort open in time for the bicentennial in Spring-Summer 2000.

More Marengo

Marengo: Introduction
Marengo: Great St. Bernard Pass
Marengo: Fort Bard
Marengo: The Battlefield
Marengo: Jumbo Battlefield Maps (very slow: 256K)

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