Largest Alpine Fortress in Europe

Not many people know about this fort, in fact try searching for the "largest fort in Europe" and it takes you a few minutes to find it.  But the Fenestrelle Fortress is the largest in Europe.

Built and upgraded in the past hundreds of years, the fortress was originally French and then later fell into Italian hands.  This is one reason not many people know about it, but what's interesting is that it's Europe's version of the Chinees Great Wall.

Next time I'm in the area I'll try to get some photos and compare it to the Chinees version.  Inside is also a nice little museum showing how life was like for the soldiers in the 19th century stationed here.

Fort Ross

One of the amazing and interesting chapters in California history is Fort Ross, located north of San Francisco, this fort was built by the Russian fur traders to supply food to Alaska.  When the fort was is use by the Russian traders, they did not have the same goal of colonization and converting the local population as the Spanish did with their Missions.  For this reason, not many people know about its existence.

The Russian River, located between Fort Ross and San Francisco was the unofficial border between the Spanish and Russian traders.

Russian supplies

Supplies from the Chinese traders

Workshop

Römerkastell Saalburg

This is quite a cool place just north of Frankfurt in the Taunus.  It's a reconstructed Roman fort with  the buildings rebuilt the way it would have been when Roman troops were stationed along the Limes defending the realm.

http://www.saalburgmuseum.de/

Bitche Citadel

For the dad's birthday we did a road trip to France to see the Bitche Citadel.  It's quite an impressive fortress with a lot of history.  The irony is that is was bypassed during WWII, so it wasn't really used.