Forte Santa Tecla, Military fortress in Genoa, Italy

Forte Santa Tecla stands at 161 m on the hill above San Martino, on the site of the church of Santa Tecla recorded from 1100. Entry is through a small inner courtyard that divides the barracks from the southern curtain wall. The barracks has three floors: kitchens, NCO offices and guardroom on the ground floor, NCO quarters and a passage to the southern bastions used as magazines above, and troop quarters on the third floor, with access to the roof of a northern bastion.

Forte Santa Tecla was planned by engineer Jacques De Sicre in 1747 as part of Genoa's outer fortification line against Austrian sieges during the War of the Austrian Succession. Colonel Giacomo De Cotte directed the works, but the project showed inadequacies and De Sicre proposed a revised scheme in 1748 with 65,000 Genoese lire. In 1814 the Royal Sardinian Corps of Engineers raised the two northern half-bastions and placed the Savoy coat of arms at the entrance.

The fort is named after the church of Santa Tecla that stood on this hill from the 11th century. Since 2021 the volunteer association Rete Forte Santa Tecla, with Associvile, AGESCI Genova 3, Gruppo Radio Liguria and the theatre company I Conviviali, has promoted its history. Restoration completed in May 2025 created spaces for cultural events in the San Fruttuoso district.

Reach the fort on foot from Forte Richelieu above via a path from Colle della Calcinara, about half an hour of easy walking. By car, follow via Donghi, via Berghini and via Forte di Santa Tecla to a small dirt clearing; the entrance is on foot only. Bus line 67 from Piazza Martinez stops nearby.

The fort's name comes from a church of Santa Tecla documented on this hilltop since 1100; in 1339 it belonged to Doge Simon Boccanegra. The church was replaced by the fort planned by engineer Jacques De Sicre in 1747 against Austrian sieges. A family lived inside the fort until the 1970s.