General information The pillbox of Center 20 with the embrasures for the two weapons and the opening of the photo-phonic channel toward Center 19. On the right is the entrance trench. Notice the effective camouflage with rock piles (24/06/1999).

Characteristics

The defense Center 20 is a mixed underground and concrete casemate works ⁽¹⁾ constructed between 1932 and 1935 on the downstream left side of the channel of the Roncia torrent ⁽²⁾.

The works, carried out according to the no. 200 Circular and manned by a crew of 16 men, consisted of:

• two machine gun posts in a double pillbox which produce "enfilading" fire intersecting with the fields of fire of Center 19 below;
• a photo-phonic installation pointed toward Center 19;
• an emergency exit;
• an underground shelter with the receptacles for holding water and the air refreshing unit;
• an installation for the electric power plant;
• two storage chambers located at the end of the entrance corridor.

Description

As you step into the entrance located in the trench on the right side of the casemate, being careful to avoid the trapdoor in the pavement from which departs the shaft of the emergency exit, you will see, after the sharply angled curve, a storage alcove, probably used for ammunition. Then you encounter the corridor which connects the combat section to the living quarters. At the intersection there is another small alcove, distinguished by a square opening in the pavement.

Turning to the left you pass an air-tight door and reach the pillbox with the two machine gun posts located at the two ends of a transverse corridor. At the middle of this transverse corridor, in front of the air-tight door, there is a triangular chamber which housed the photo-phonic station for communicating with Center 19.

You then return to the intersection from which the corridor to the entrance departs, and you descend four steps. On the right you pass the space for the electric power generator, and then, at the curve, you find two air-tight doors which lead to the living quarters.

All loose metal parts, such as the moving parts of the doors, the cover of the emergency exit trap-door, and the tubes of the ventilation system, have been removed. The only things left are the external door of the emergency exit and the sections of tube imbedded in the walls near the air-tight doors.

Armament

As you can judge from the niches for holding the containers of cooling water for the machine guns, located underneath the protective plates of the post, Center 20 was set up for the Fiat water-cooled machine gun model no. 14.