Forte Chiusa, Fort in Dolcè, Veneto, Italy

Forte Chiusa is a two-storey casemate block built 1849–1851 by the Austrian military administration to block the Adige valley road at the Chiusa di Ceraino, in the comune of Dolcè. Its walls are cut Veronese marble outside and brick within; the lower floor has four gun embrasures, the upper eight, and a semicircular tower adjoins the river side. The road and the Brenner railway once passed through the same gate, and the roof, covered with earth, continues as a lower gun platform. Only ruins remain, left to themselves.

The fortress was built between 1849 and 1851 by the Austrian monarchy to control the narrow passage of the Adige Valley. After more than a century of use, it was partially demolished in 1960 and subsequently abandoned.

The name Chiusa refers to the Ceraino gorge where the Adige is squeezed between rock walls; a Venetian fort already stood here before 1849. In 1701 Marshal de Tessé described a house stuck against the rock, two drawbridges and a chain across the river to stop boats. The Austrian blockhouse kept that gate-and-drawbridge arrangement, and the road and railway passed through the same arch.

The fort stands on the SS 12 Brenner state road in the Veronese Klause at Dolcè, at 115 m above sea level; the 1960 road widening cut away the passage section, so the surviving casemate block sits beside the carriageway. The Brenner railway now runs east of the site through a rock tunnel, and a rest stop was built just south of the fort. The remains are abandoned and left to themselves, with no upkeep.

The garrison's water came from a deep well connected to the Adige, not from a surface channel. The fort also had a fountain on the ground floor fed by a canal from the river. The 1701 report by Marshal de Tessé noted a chain across the river to stop boats.