Francesco Antonio Olivero, a military engineer, designed the present Fort Bard for Charles Albert of Savoy. It was built from 1830 to 1838, in stone and concrete. The fort is a rectangular fortress with two levels: an upper part with conventional battlements and a lower part with casemates. It has 50 gun ports and 283 rooms and could hold 416 soldiers.
The infobox gives its height as up to 200 feet (60 meters), while a photo caption says 80 meters above the gorge, so the sources conflict. Earlier structures stood on the site, including a tenth-century castle. In May 1800 about 400 soldiers held the pass for two weeks against a French army of 40,000, and Napoleon ordered it razed.
The fort reopened in 2006 as the Museum of the Alps.
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