The Gulf of La Spezia can be considered perhaps the only one within Europe with the highest military structures, meaning by this term a series of fortifications (batteries, forts, towers) built to defend a first military arsenal.
Already Napoleon in 1808 with his decree put pen to paper which fortifications should be built in order to defend his arsenal and where: a first fort at Castellana, one at Muzzerone, some on the Palmaria island and Tino island, in Maralunga, while other fortifications, already existing in the gulf, should have been reinforced.
The Napoleonic ideas were taken up and implemented by Cavour, starting from 1857. When in 1860 La Spezia was indicated as the ideal site for the construction of the current arsenal, the bilding of the first forts and the first batteries began.
Map of the main batteries / fortifications in the Gulf of La Spezia