Gallerie sotterranee di Contromina e Baluardo Donato

Outside Porta Udine, Palmanova's defenders built a hidden counter-world: countermine galleries where soldiers listened for enemy sappers and prepared gunpowder chambers beneath the siege works. The restored sector extends about 550 metres through the Rivellino and Baluardo Donato, linking underground defenses to the bastion's guard lodge.

Why it matters

Star fortresses were fought as much underground as on the ramparts, and Palmanova preserves the evidence. Seventeenth-century countermine galleries let defenders reach the point where an enemy was tunnelling, dig a chamber, load it with gunpowder and blast the attack before it reached the walls. The restored section at the ravelin outside Porta Udine extends for about 550 metres and ends with an ascent through the sortie gallery of Baluardo Donato, one of the nine bastions, to a historic guard lodge. Together, the subterranean passages and the bastion show how the fortress's defenses connected the moat, walls and interior.

What to notice

The galleries' low vaulted passages, branches toward the ditch and small chambers for powder charges reflect the countermining work carried out beneath the siege lines. The route through the sortie gallery rises toward Baluardo Donato's guard lodge, which overlooks the moat, ravelins and streets of the town. Outside Porta Udine, the old Venetian aqueduct marks the landscape above the underground works.

Context and history

The galleries belong to Palmanova's seventeenth-century defensive development after its founding in 1593. Countermine warfare was its own craft: besiegers tunnelled to breach the walls from below, defenders tunnelled to meet them, and the sector at the Rivellino outside Porta Udine preserves this system in brick and earth. In May 2025, the municipality inaugurated an extended and restored route, increasing its length from about 250 to 550 metres and adding lighting and augmented-reality interpretation.