Il forte di Santa Maria nel Golfo della Spezia. Materiali per la ricostruzione virtuale del manufatto storico andato distrutto

Current military settlement of Santa Maria occupies the same site of the star-shaped fort built by the Republic of Genoa starting from the 16th century on the west coast of the Gulf of La Spezia, an area historically interesting for its strategic position and for the physical appearance such as to guarantee good shelter of the vessels. This paper focuses on the historic fort, damaged by the British in 1800 and subject to a recovery program in the Napoleonic era, when French and Italian engineers are sent by the French government to the Gulf to carry out a vast statistical-descriptive and cartographic operation, aimed at an impressive urban-military infrastructure project. These surveys have produced a large number of topographical scale drawings describing in detail architectural features of the ancient fort. Through these sources it would be possible to virtually reconstruct the artefact that no longer exists. Fort of Santa Maria was in fact demolished in the second half of the nineteenth century and replaced by a new gun battery. Cartographic sources allows us to reconstruct appearance and functions also of this more recent infrastructure.