Fort Casa Ratti was built
between 1906 and 1908 in the Astico Valley (on the right bank of the Astico
river), just 350 meters above sea level, near the small village of "case
Ratti" (part of the Arsiero municipality), after which it was named. Its
task was to defend the Arsiero area and the access to the Vicenza plain;
together with the nearby Fort Corbin, Casa Ratti was to bar the pass to a
possible enemy advance from the upper Astico Valley. The fort was part of the
Agno-Assa Barrage, Sector III (Asiago).
The fort was armed with
three 149 mm cast-iron guns, housed in rotating armored cupolas, Ispettorato
type (4 cm thick); there were also four 87/98 mm bronze guns, five machine guns
(three in armored turrets and two in casemate) and several positions for
riflemen for close defense.
It still was a smaller and
"spartan" fort than the nearby Corbin and other forts built on the
plateau in the following years (Verena, Campolongo, Enna), so that it was
sometimes called a "permanent armored battery" rather than a
"real" fortress; unlike the latter, it was not provided with an
internal infantry garrison and there were no rooms to house it, nor a permanent
line for rifle fire. Having been built a few years before the other above
mentioned fortresses, Casa Ratti, compared to them, had various deficiencies:
it was a compromise between the construction technique in squared stone, used
until then, and the concrete that was becoming the new method; the powder
magazines were outside the fort and too far, service communications were not
sheltered, and there were few means for close defense.
Like other forts, at the
outbreak of the war Casa Ratti was too far from the front line to participate
in the operations; however, it was not disarmed. In 1916 the garrison consisted
of 67 artillerymen of a fortress artillery section, plus one Guardia di Finanza
company. The fort commander was Lt. Croce.
Its baptism of fire took
place on May 17, 1916, with the beginning of the "Strafexpedition": a
380 mm Austro-Hungarian howitzer ( "Barbara"), stationed on the
Cost'Alta ridge at Monterovere, Lavarone (12.5 km away, and 1000 meters higher),
began to bombard the fort. The fire was directed by the Wiatz stronghold, near
Fort Lusern, from where the cupolas of the Italian fort could be seen. On May
17, from 7:30 to 11:20, "Barbara" fired 20 shells at Casa Ratti; on May
19, both "Barbara" and another 420-mm howitzer fired on the fort,
together; on May 21, from 6:45 to 7:45, "Barbara" fired three shots
at Casa Ratti, and two more at 4:30 on May 24; on May 25, finally, the fort was
bombarded with six more shells.
Fort Casa Ratti, however,
was built in a tight angle with respect to the artillery fire coming from the
area of Lavarone, so it did not suffer major damage: only a 380 mm shell actually
hit the main battery block. A few days later, however, with the enemy advance
in the area, the fort became untenable - for its location, the enemy advance,
the aforementioned deficiencies as well as the scarcity of supplies of food and
water shortages - and orders were given to abandon it and blow it up to avoid
its capture.
The order was given by
Lieutenant Colonel S. Martino on May 25, 1916, and confirmed on the same day;
the shutters of the three 149 mm guns were removed to make them unusable, then
the bulk of the garrison withdrew, leaving behind a small rear-guard
(Lieutenant Soldini the Army Corps of Engineers and five soldiers) tasked with
preparing and activating the explosive charges, placed in the powder magazines,
in the cupolas and in the machinery room. A Romanian patrol of the 50th
Infantry Regiment (led by officer cadet Cisteianu), sent ahead for
reconnaissance, however, surprised and disarmed the Italian rearguard before it
could activate the charges; Fort Casa Ratti thus fell intact into enemy hands.
It was May 26, 1916.
According to one version,
in the month in which it remained in the hands of the Austro-Hungarians, the
fort fired on the Italian positions.
On June 25, 1916, with the
retreat of the Austro-Hungarian troops at the end of "Strafexpedition"
Fort Casa Ratti was mined again by the Austro-Hungarians, and, this time, was
blown up for good. The operation was performed by Lieutenant of Engineers Albin
Mlaker, with eight tons of gun powder and 200 kg of ecrasite; the armored
cupolas and the machine guns turrets were projected into the air for dozens of
meters by the force of the explosion.
Unlike the other Italian
fortresses of the plateau, Casa Ratti was not affected by cleaning and
restoration work in recent years: to date, the fort is a overgrown heap of
ruins, and in summer the vegetation makes it practically inaccessible .
Along the access road to
the fort there are shelter tunnels dug by Italian troops, who left their
friezes on them.
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| Roof of a secondary block, |
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| The moat, filled with plants. |
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| Parts of the fort cana be glimpsed among the vegetation. |
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| "36th Infantry Regiment, 1st Sapper Unit, 1916. G. Volpi". |
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| Remains of barracks/depots along the access road. |
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| "35th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Battalion, Built [this]". |
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| Remains of barracks along the access road. |
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| Entrance to a gallery. |
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| "35th Infantry Regiment - The Sappers built - 1916". |
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| "35th Infantry Regiment - The Sappers - 1916" |
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| Inside the galleries. |
