Chaberton: the eight towers at 3,131 m

Eight towers at 3,131 metres. And you walk up to them.

Some mountains stay with you for the view. Chaberton stays with you for what you find at the top: eight concrete artillery towers lined up across the flattened summit. This is no ordinary ruin — it is the highest fort ever built in Europe, and there is no cable car. You walk.

We start from Claviere and climb the Rio Secco valley: woods first, then pasture, then nothing but stone. At the Colle dello Chaberton, 2,674 m, the old military road begins — built in the early 1900s to haul guns where nobody thought guns could go. Hairpin after hairpin, it carries you to the summit.

The history here is not a signpost. In June 1940 French batteries hit the towers one after another from across the border, and what stands today is exactly what was left. Since the 1947 peace treaty the summit has been French territory: you set off in one country and arrive in another without noticing.

From the top the Cottian Alps open in every direction, with Monviso to the south and the Dauphiné peaks ahead.

5 reasons to come

• Europe's highest artillery fort, reached on foot
• a genuine 3,000er with no technical ground
• the hairpinned military road, a feat in itself
• border history you can touch
• 360° views over the Cottians, Monviso and the Dauphiné

Who it suits

Walkers with trained legs and a few long days behind them. No mountaineering experience or technical kit needed — just the ability to walk for hours and feel good at altitude.