Forte Aurelia Antica: A Fort in Rome’s Defensive System
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.4
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Italy
- Primary era
- Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Modern
- Civilizations
- Italian
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Fort
On this page4 sections
History
Forte Aurelia Antica is a fort in Rome, Italy, built in the Prussian style between 1877 and 1881 as one of the 15 forts in the city’s fortified system. This defensive network consisted of mutually supporting forts and related military works established to protect Rome. The fort stands at the third kilometre of Via Aurelia Antica, from which it takes its name.
Construction and military role
Construction began in 1877 and was completed in 1881. The contract was awarded to the Società Veneta. The fort was used by units of the Italian Army, operating under the Kingdom of Italy, the unified Italian state that existed from 1861 to 1946. Its strategic function was the defence of Rome, a role that ended in 1919.
Postwar uses and conservation
After the Second World War, the complex initially accommodated 8,000 displaced people and was later converted to use as a hospital. Since 1958, it has housed a logistics centre of the Guardia di Finanza, Italy’s law-enforcement corps principally responsible for financial and customs policing. Since 2017, the entire complex has undergone redevelopment alongside conservation restoration of the fort, including a reassessment of the successive roles it played during its history.
Remains
Forte Aurelia Antica occupies 5.7 hectares in Rome’s suburb VIII, Gianicolense, within Municipio Roma XII. Its surviving complex is the physical remains of a fort built in the Prussian style for Rome’s late nineteenth-century defensive system. The site’s location at the third kilometre of Via Aurelia Antica links the fort’s name to the road beside which it was constructed. Conservation restoration has accompanied the redevelopment of the complex since 2017.
