Batteria La Court, Fortification ruins in Val-Cenis, France

Batteria La Court is a mountain fortification built on a rocky ridge at about 2090 meters elevation on the southeastern edge of the Mont Cenis plateau. The concrete structure contained two floors, with troop quarters and technical rooms below and ammunition storage above.

Built between 1905 and 1910 on the Court rock at 2090 m, it was the second armoured battery on the Mont Cenis plateau after Batteria Paradiso, raised because the 19th-century forts (Cassa, Roncia, Varisello) could no longer stop a French attack through the Susa Valley. Its guns stayed in place during World War I; in June 1940 they shelled the French forts Petite Turrà, Revet and Arcellins, and in 1944-1945, rearmed with 149 mm guns, they fired again. Retreating German troops blew it up in late April 1945.

The fortification shows how Italy built mountain defenses in the early 1900s to protect the Alps. You can still see the military construction methods in what remains today.

This high-altitude site is accessible only on foot via steep mountain paths, so good physical fitness is needed. Weather can change rapidly up here, so visitors should be ready for sudden shifts and limited visibility.

The four retractable 149/35 A guns sat in circular shafts five metres wide and two deep, each sealed by a cast-iron dome about 14 cm thick shaped like a turtle shell. The battery also had a double powder magazine, the larger room for ballistite and the smaller for black powder, linked to the upper floor by hoists.