Museo delle Fortificazioni
Fort Bard opens a new and fascinating historical place. To the ambitious museum project made of the opening of the Museum of the Alps, the thematic itineraries The Children’s Alps and the Prisons, next to spaces dedicated to temporary exhibitions of international scene, the tourist and cultural centre of the Autonomous Region of Valle d’Aosta adds an unusual precious item. Starting from April 30th, 2017 a new museum will be delivered to the public: The Ferdinando, Museum of Fortifications and Frontiers.
Located in the Opera Ferdinando, on the first level of the fortress of Bard, the museum offers an exciting journey through the evolution of defensive techniques, the siege and the border concept systems. From the need to provide more historical interpretations both of the site and of the Fort, it was necessary to expand – in time and space – this itinerary of knowledge, framing the configuration of the nineteenth-century fortress, in the history of long life of fortification systems, in the framework of the Alps as a limit, obstacle, natural barrier, wireless border, land and political boundary well lived, crossed, defended and fortified.
The museum is divided into three different sections: the “Museum of the Fort and of the Fortifications”, “The Fortified Alps (1871-1946)” and “The Alps, a boundary?”.
The museum of Frontiers
The Frontier Museum explores the concept of boundaries not only from a political point of view but also an economic and cultural one.
The final part of the new museum asks for a question: “The Alps, do they represent a border?, with the aim of leading the visitor to reflect about their development and on the meaning given to the word frontier: boundary or barrier? Obstacle or beaming?
This aspect outlines an exhibition that conveys a complex and structured view not only of Fort of Bard, but also the historical, social, cultural and geopolitical context within which they are placed in different historical periods: a journey into the past that ends with an extremely current reflection on the present.
In this way the visitor is involved in a dialogue with the place where he is located, in search of an identity, the one of the Alps, in constant evolution, which becomes the crossroads of great events of the past and the history of men made of simple and memories actions.
