La Polveriera di Monte Argentario is a military complex located in the municipality of Monte Argentario. Its location is at the top of the Poggio della Polveriera, which rises in a dominant position with respect to the Orbetello Lagoon.
The military structure was built under the jurisdiction of the State of the Presidia, designed by Camillo Perez De Veña, between 1782 and 1783, together with the adjoining adjoining building located in a higher position that housed the housing of the militias serving it. Its construction became necessary to create a single large munitions depot outside the town of Porto Ercole, which until then had some smaller ones located between Forte Filippo, Rocca and Forte Stella: all this was done to make the population safer in the event of an incident resulting in an explosion at one of the aforementioned pre-existing depots.
The powder magazine was housed inside the building with a rectangular plan, surrounded by high and thick wall curtains that delimit an external fortress with a quadrangular section. The access door to the structure, with a round arch, opens up near the ravelin which culminates with a triangular pediment, through which one enters the area enclosed by the curtain walls. The building is on two levels and is closed at the top by a gabled roof. The walls of the external powder magazine and fort are completely covered in plaster. Just outside the fortress, near the corner to the right of the ravelin, there is the circular-shaped watchtower with domed roof, which in the past housed the sentry that carried out the guard duty to guard the entrance.
The building that housed the garrison lodgings also has a rectangular plan, arranged on two levels and divided into two internal rooms, with a two-sloping roof and walls entirely covered in plaster.
