Fortezza Mont'Alfonso, a door opens after 400 years

The last stones are removed and a doorway that had been blocked up and buried for more than 400 years was opened this morning in the Fortezza di Mont'Alfonso, Castelnuovo Garfagnana, Italy.

It would be difficult to find a more fitting or more elequent demonstration of just what has been happening at the forgotten Fortezza di Mont'Alfonso overlooking Castelnuovo Garfagnana. It is gradually being rediscovered, brought to the surface and the doors with the outside world are being flung wide open once more.

The restoration of the Fortezza, which after the walls surrounding Lucca, is the largest and most significant example of military architecture since the Rinascimento in the province of Lucca, goes from strength to strength.

So far they have dicovered an ancient foundry and workshops for the construction of cannons, cannon balls and bells and the remains of a church dedicated to S. Pantaleone.(Pantoleon of Nicomedia - medic for the Emperor Massimiano beheaded for his beliefs)

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