Centro Volontariato Permanente - Legambiente Verona

The Bastion of San Bernardino gets its names from the nearby church of San Bernardino. It was common, in Verona, to name military buildings after churches in the nearby area.

After Napoleon abandoned the city in the early 19^th Century, he ordered the destruction of most of the defensive military structure. Thus, the Bastion of San Bernardino was completely destroyed by the French army, which led, during the Austrian occupation, to its complete reconstruction.

Although none of the bastions designed by von Scholl have completely retained their original shape the Bastion of San Bernardino is the best illustration of the characteristics of the 1800’s fortification. The heart of the bastion is a pentagonal rampart (1), with escarpments (2) descending down to a defensive ditch or moat.

At the feet of the escarpment we find a detached wall, called wall à la Carnot, in Veronese tuff (3) with polygonal opus (4) façades which is characteristic of all the perimeter bastions. The wall has a continuous line of gun loops. Arched niches (5) protect the defenders from ricochets. The space between the wall and the escarpment is called chemin de ronde (6), inside the ditch and protected from attacks coming from the top of the wall. The access to the chemin the ronde made is through two posterns (7), dug within the curtain wall on each side of the bastion. On both flanks there used to be two cannon positions, originally covered by iron gates. On the corner of the bastions the wall bends to form the space of the orillon which was used to safely gather troops ready for a counterattack through the sally port (8), protected by a draw bridge above a small ditch which is now covered. On the tip of the pentagon we find the caponier (9); two stories of gun loops with a bulwarked roof for protection against bombs. On the platform of the rampart a parapet previously existed for both artillery and riflemen. On the inside of the bastion, we can also find a small warehouse, which stored the daily gunpowder provision.

During the Austrian period, the Walls of Verona were armed with 340 artillery pieces. The Reign of Italy reduced this number to 111. Afterwards, the bastions were disarmed; the artillery removed and melted down. Four of these cannons were recovered and today they can be seen on the bastion’s rampart. These are 1800’s Italian iron cannons, 12cm caliber with a hexagonal carved concave.

An easy way to identify the Bastion of San Bernardino is through its left orillion (10), which was damaged during the bombings in 1945. Consolidation of the masonry by the city’s administration has stopped further collapse. The breach allows us to see the structure of the wall and how it was built.

Check the galleries for more images of the Bastions and, for more information on the history and description of the Bastion of San Bernardino, visit Parco delle Mura di Verona.

This text was adapted from Stocker, Mirjiam; Pierre, Elodie; et. al. (eds). Guida Al Parco Delle Mura e Dei Forti di Verona – Un Parco da Vivere. Legambiente Volontariato Verona. 2010.

Glossary:

1. Rampart: An embankment of earth which was used for the purpose of defense, dug from the ditch.
2. Escarpments: A steep slope in front of a fortification.
3. Tuff: A rock composed of compacted volcanic ash varying in size from fine sand to coarse gravel. In Verona, it is called "Veronese Tuff", which is a soft, sedimentary rock, different from the actual vulcanic tuff.
4. Polygonal Opus: Construction technique that consists in building a wall using ashlars cut in regular polygon shapes.
5. Niches: an ornamental recess in a wall or the like, usually semicircular in plan and arched, as for a statue or other decorative object.
6. Chemin de Ronde: In the medieval walls it is a small parapet behind the crenellation; in the moder works it is the path between the rampart and the detached wall.
7. Postern: Wide gallery that connects the inside of a stronghold with the works placed at moats level.
8. Sally Port: A small, heavily fortified gateway or gate, from the inner works to the outer works of a fortification: which was used by defenders to launch attacks to take the besiegers off guard and thus gain an advantage.
9. Caponier: A casemate placed in the moat. On von Scholl’s bastions it is placed on the axis of the all à la Carnot and hosts rifle corps and artillery.
10. Orillion: A semi-circular projection at the shoulder of a bastion, projecting past the normal flank of a rampart and parapet used to protect a flanking battery and defenders on the flank.