Les ouvrages défensifs du Vallo Ligure: protection des témoignages de la seconde guerre mondiale

The Vallo Ligure (Ligurian Wall) is a significant element of an important integrated defensive work built between 1943 and 1944 by German occupation Forces to oppose the landing of the Allied Forces on the Ligurian and Upper Tuscany coasts. The possible landing on the Ligurian coast, able to overcome German defenses in the Apennine sector, heading for the northern Italy, was the reason for intensive planning of defensive countermeasures. The specialized departments of the engineer corps realized these defensive works with the Todt Organization. The coastal defense was improved by the construction of reinforced concrete tortoise shells built above the emplacements and by the construction of new fortified architectures, to prevent the advance of armored vehicles and infantry through the beaches and the flat areas. Based on the experience of the Atlantic Wall, various anti-tank obstacles were also built. The most common along the coasts is the reinforced concrete wall called "Panzermauer". Today many elements of this impressive work are still visible along the beaches and the hills, more or less readable in their transformations. They appear as evident and significant memories of the history of that period. Part of these works is now protected while others are undergoing a cataloging campaign for the recognition and maintenance of elements that draw the landscape and history of the Ligurian coast.