Bard Fortress

The rock at Bard closes the Aosta Valley to a gap barely wide enough for road and river, and has been fortified since antiquity. In May 1800 Napoleon crossed the Great St Bernard with an army and was held up here by a garrison of around four hundred; the infantry slipped past on a path above, but the artillery had to be muffled with straw and dragged through the village at night under the guns. He ordered the fort destroyed. The Savoy rebuilt it larger between 1830 and 1838 in three tiers of batteries. Restored from 1996, it now holds museums of the Alps and glass lifts up the rock.

What you actually see

• The three tiers - batteries stacked up the rock in the 1830s rebuild.
• The Napoleon story - the night passage of guns under the fortress.
• The Alpine museum - a large modern museum of mountain life and science.
• The glass lifts - panoramic lifts climbing the rock face.

When to go

April to October; the fortress opens year-round but with reduced winter hours and closes some Mondays. Exhibitions change through the year. Allow half a day.

Honest expectations

Almost everything standing is the nineteenth-century rebuild, not the fort Napoleon faced. The site is large with many levels. Some museums close between exhibitions.

Nearby

Fenis castle lies up the valley; Ivrea is south.