Werk Serrada

Construction

Fort Serrada was built between 1911 and September 12, 1914. Serrada was like the other forts in the Lavarone-Folgaria group, and unlike the previous ones of the so called "Vogl style", the guns were separated so that a single shell couldn't render the fort useless. The fort was also built in two blocks: the casemate block and the battery block, which were separate. They were built parallel to each other and were connected by an external postern. The separation decreased the chance of a shell hitting the fort in the event of a barrage.

The concrete postern was replaced when it was destroyed in June 1915, and a new one was drilled through solid rock. The armored machine guns were linked to an entrance in the fort via the trenches by an underground tunnel. The fort was surrounded by trenches on three sides, some of which were seven metres deep. The guns were emplaced in natural rock to give them extra protection from artillery. In addition, the ammunition magazines were drilled into the solid rock and were connected to the guns by shell elevators. The concrete ceiling was approximately 2.5 metres thick and was reinforced with steel I-beams above the casemates. Only a 30.5 cm shell could penetrate the reinforced ceilings. The fort cost 1,969,000 Crowns (Austro-Hungarian currency) to build.

Trench caponier

The trench caponier was a two-storey building, with two 6 cm field guns on the first floor. There were also two armored casemates with two machine guns each on the second floor. There were also two 25 cm spotlights.

Frontal machine gun block

There were two fixed armored MG domes with two Schwarzlose machine guns. Besides the crews, up to 20 additional men could be accommodated here, who went up to the top of the fort to defend from prepared positions. This is why this part of the complex had an emergency exit up to the top of the fort. The passage from the battery block to the trench caponier passed through this area.

Frontal battery block

This area had two 10 cm Tower Howitzers (T.H.) mounted in armored domes with negative depressors, two fixed MG domes with two guns each, and a rotatable armored observation dome which could be equipped with a machine gun. When shelling permitted, a 60 cm spotlight could be set up on the roof of the battery block. This spotlight had the job of illuminating the road to Monte Maggio, among other things. The battery block had two floors; the bottom floor was primarily the meeting point of many posterns and tunnels leading out of the area. This was the entrance to the two machine-gun turrets, as well as an ammo magazine, a standby room, and a toilet.