Forte Preara

Forte Preara is a small polygonal fort on the spur separating the Valpantena from the Mizzole valley, north of Montorio castle. Austrian engineers raised it to guard Verona in 1859 and 1860. Rifled barrels had stretched cannon range from about two kilometres to five, leaving the old defences inside that reach. The second entrenched field, a fresh ring of forts, went up beyond them. This one held the city's eastern flank, the last stronghold on the Adige's left bank. It began as Werk John, honouring Baron Franz von John, knight of the Maria Theresa Order, decorated at Goito and Volta Mantovana.

Mostly hexagonal blocks of local tuff stone follow the ridge's irregular line, cut and squared by residents of nearby villages. In action, an open battery swept the northern crest, its fire crossing with the Massimiliane towers on Monte Gaina. A casemated eastern front raked the valley's exit, and two rear pieces joined Castel San Felice along the Valpantena. Two more covered the southern gap, working with the castle's own battery. The main armament counted three 9-centimetre rifled breech-loaders and eight smoothbore cannons. In wartime the garrison ran to 120 infantry and 20 artillerymen.

A military road climbs from the castle below to the western rear, under a squared caponier's fire. A dry moat cut into the rock guards the entrance portal. Beyond it, a circular security enclosure loopholed for riflemen brings you into the courtyard. A bombproof powder magazine sits under the embankment, and a cistern beneath the courtyard gathers rainwater. Later service as an explosives depot helped preserve the fabric, though vandals struck once the military left. Across the valley, the crest of the opposite ridge still carries the geometric shaping cut for artillery fire.