Forte Venini di Oga

Forte Venini di Oga

This road climbs from Santa Lucia, in Valdisotto near Bormio, Lombardy, Italy, to Oga and Forte Venini. Until the end of the First World War the Stelvio above Bormio marked the border with Austria-Hungary. Forte Venini was built in 1908–12, and from June 1915 to September 1918 its guns shelled Austrian positions. It is now a museum and one of the best-preserved First World War forts in Europe.

The road itself was built for the fort, replacing a mule track so that building materials could be carried up: sand from the Adda, lime from Bormio’s dolomite and iron from the old furnaces at Premadio. The ride starts by the church of Santa Lucia, climbs to Oga, now a ski village, and ends near the fort. Named in 1938 after Captain Corrado Venini, it has four armoured cupolas on its roof.