Fort Bard, Aosta Valley, Italy. Final assault on the fort led by General Chabran, commander of the rear guard. General Andreossi, commander of the artillery, placed a 12-mm gun in the presbytery of the parish church, next to the bell tower, and from there, protected by the overhanging rock face, began shelling the fort’s entrance gate, approximately 150 meters away. The defenders were powerless against the cannon, which began its systematic demolition of the defenses at 9:00 a.m. At sunset, surrender was called for the fifth time, and the fort’s commander, then Captain Joseph Otto Stockard von Bernkopf, signed it, with honors of war, at 9:00 p.m. The fort, which had held off Napoleon’s artillery for 14 days, was completely razed to the ground at the end of hostilities, and nothing remains of it. The formidable architecture we see today was built between 1830 and 1838 and never took part in any wartime events.
