Fort San Felice: Venice’s Fortress at the Southern Entrance to the Lagoon
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.2
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Italy
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Habsburg, Venetian
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Fort
On this page14 sections
History
Fort San Felice is a military fortress in Italy, built by the Republic of Venice near the port entrance of Chioggia in 1385 to strengthen the southern entrance to the Venetian Lagoon. Its construction followed the War of Chioggia, a late-fourteenth-century conflict between Venice and Genoa that ended in Venetian favor in 1381. The fortress occupies a low, partly submerged lagoon island and covers approximately 25,000 square metres. Its plan forms a star when viewed from above.
Foundation after the War of Chioggia
A wooden castle had occupied the site before Fort San Felice, but it was destroyed during the war. In 1384, the Venetian Senate approved a new masonry castle, and construction began the following year. The building was first known as the Castle of Chioza, then as the Castle of Luppa. Its final name came from a lookout post near the maritime entrance, which was dedicated to one of the patron saints of the Diocese of Chioggia.
Adaptation to artillery and storms
The fortress was repeatedly transformed as military technology developed, although it never suffered an attack. In the sixteenth century, a defensive wall with bastions was built around the castle. These projecting defensive platforms improved its resistance to artillery and to frequent storm surges. In the seventeenth century, the castle’s upper floor was filled completely with sand and made inaccessible, while its tall lookout tower was reduced in height to limit its exposure to cannon fire.
Between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a stone-block breakwater was constructed along the seaward and harbor-entrance sides of the fortress. It reduced the force of storm waves, while repeated repairs to the bastions addressed erosion and damage caused by the sea. The fortress stands on a lagoonal barena, a wet tract of land characteristic of the Venetian Lagoon, so moisture continually entered the masonry and demanded regular maintenance.
From Venetian rule to abandonment
After the fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797, the fortress passed through French, Austrian, and Italian administrations. Its armaments were improved and its military accommodation expanded. Austrian authorities also added powder magazines along the perimeter bastions when the original magazine could no longer hold the fortress’s weapons.
Fort San Felice lost its strategic function in 1979 and was subsequently abandoned. Many of its structures then fell into ruin. Since 1999, the Fort San Felice Committee has promoted efforts to restore the fortress’s historical and cultural importance. A campaign organized by the committee placed the site ninth in the 2016 FAI Places of the Heart survey, receiving 25,122 votes. The resulting contribution supported the construction of paths through the site.
Remains
Star-shaped fortress and Castle of Luppa
The surviving complex is organized around the Castle of Luppa and several buildings concealed from the outside by the surrounding bastions. The castle’s perimeter walls, made of stone and masonry, are approximately 1.80 metres thick. Its ground-floor rooms have barrel-vaulted ceilings. The original mastio, a tall lookout tower, was lowered in the seventeenth century, and the second floor was filled with sand to strengthen the building against artillery fire. The castle ends in a terrace where the lighthouse serving the port entrance stood until 1993. Other buildings were attached to it over the centuries, with some surviving and others later demolished.
Walls and seaward defenses
Bastions and breakwater
The sixteenth-century defensive wall encloses the fortress with bastions designed for artillery defense. Their masonry was repeatedly restored because marine erosion and storms damaged the exposed surfaces. A stone-block breakwater was later built around the seaward and harbor-entrance sides, creating an additional barrier against storm waves.
Walking Lion of Saint Mark
At the northwestern end of the breakwater stood an acroterion, an ornament placed at the upper edge of a structure, depicting the Walking Lion of Saint Mark. The winged lion was the emblem associated with Saint Mark and Venice. Cannon fire damaged and chiselled the sculpture at the end of the eighteenth century. A Latin inscription at its base originally used lead letters, which were removed. The surviving holes in the stone allow only a partial reconstruction of the text, which refers to the fortress’s protection from the sea, the raised ornament and intervening bulwark, and a decree of the Venetian Senate.
Murazzi sea defense
The Murazzi, a major sea defense built from Istrian stone during the second half of the eighteenth century, began beside the fortress’s southeastern bastion. This lagoon barrier was constructed to protect the banks from marine erosion, with the work extending from the Lido of Venice to central Sottomarina.
Entrances and military buildings
Monumental entrance
Because the fortress was originally reachable only by sea, architect Andrea Tirali added a monumental entrance in 1704. The portal is built of Istrian stone in the Doric style, a classical order known for relatively plain columns and capitals. Its inner and outer faces share the same design.
Powder magazines
The oldest powder magazine dates from the middle of the eighteenth century. Its thick walls and bombproof roof protected gunpowder from long-range attack. During Austrian rule, further magazines were placed along the perimeter bastions as the original store became too small for the fortress’s armaments. The earlier magazine later ceased to serve its primary purpose, was incorporated into another building, and became a warehouse.
Blockhaus dormitory
The Blockhaus was built by the Austrians between 1830 and 1840. This elongated military building has rounded ends and served as a dormitory, reflecting the expansion of accommodation after the fortress passed out of Venetian control.
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