Construction of the Fort of St. Elias, now known, albeit improperly, as St. Ignatius Fort, was begun beginning in late 1792. Set about 94 meters above sea level, the fort was designed by Major Adjutant of Battalion, Franco Lorenzo, a military engineer who was inspired by the principles of the most modern military architecture of the Vaubanian school, conceiving an efficient fortification with exceptional firepower for the time. However, there was a big difference between the original design and the actual construction of what was envisioned on paper. Today it stands out for the mighty stone structures lacking the roofs. As evidenced by some documents from 1797, the blockhouse was never completed: only one of the towers was casemated, the moat was not completed, and the cistern was never built. During the clash with the French, both water and ammunition came from the area of St. Bartholomew, where the fountain, storehouses, and powder magazines were. Of the fifty or more cannons planned to arm the fortification, no more than five or six were carried, and only three or four actually fired against the Revolutionary fleet, in January and February of that 1793. Small and cramped garrisons were stationed in the fortification, which remained unfinished until its military decommissioning on January 11, 1804, the day the Fortino became a branch of the Lazzaretto for the shelter of the contagious sick. Lamarmora, during his work to establish the modern cadastre, placed a geodesic point on the roof of the Fortino’s only casemate tower, which is still visible today. During World War II, the Fortino regained military importance. Some photographs from the early 1940s show us the emplacement of an airphone used for “acoustic sighting” of the dreaded Allied bombers.
