Fort Mont-Vaudois is located in Héricourt in the Department of Haute-Saône. A linkage between the fortified camp of Belfort and the southern curtain wall, this fort, built between 1874 and 1877, was intended to control the Lizaine valley and Châlonvillars plain in Échenans, and protect the routes to Montbéliard. Several adjoining batteries built around the fort completed its function.

Designed to hold 650 men and some 50 artillery pieces, it is a large trapeze-shaped fort with a complex internal layout. A semi-circular massif central or central structure housing the barracks is preceded by a high crest for the long-range artillery which is itself preceded by a low crest for the infantry and light artillery.

Firing in the same direction, a group of four casemates for indirect fire was placed behind this central structure. Its rear faces a line of open-air outposts firing in the opposite direction. Two doors provide a route to the exterior.

In 1889, in response to the crisis of 1885, underground casemates were dug beneath the fort to serve as bulletproof barracks during war time. However, being far down on the list of priorities, the fort had to wait until 1913 until it received any major modernisation works. Two 155 turrets, three machine gun turrets and rampart shelters were planned.

However, when the war started, only the concreting of one section of the barracks, two observation points and some underground passages were completed. The modernisation was then abandoned and the fort was restored improvising with the resources at their disposal.

Tourist Information Office

2 rue Clemenceau 90000 Belfort

Tel: 03 84 55 90 90

Fax: 03 84 55 90 70

E-mail: tourisme90@ot-belfort.fr

Source text: Antoine Brolli

Fort Giromagny or Fort Dorsner stands at the southernmost point of the defensive curtain of Haute-Moselle that connected the fortified camps of Belfort and Épinal. Its role was to control the busy crossroads at Giromagny where an invasion route (from Ballon d'Alsace to Belfort) intersected with a road that bypassed the fortified camp of Belfort (the road from Masevaux to Champagney).

Built between 1875 and 1879, it had the honour of receiving the first two armoured turrets built in France (two revolving iron-clad towers each holding two 155-mm cannons) and the only ones in the Belfort fortifications before the 1900s. This trapezium-shaped fort with its compact architecture was equipped with shelter for nearly 650 men and a sizeable armament. A massif central was organised around a courtyard with attractive walls of rose sandstone. It housed the barracks and storehouses, six casemates for indirect fire and the two turrets. It was surrounded by a rampart equipped with open-air artillery outposts.

Fort Giromagny did receive some modernisation, albeit barely sufficient: Excavation of underground powder stores in 1888 then underground shelters in 1914, three observation posts (1913-1914) and some concreting to reinforce the vaults (1914-1916).

On 18 June 1940, the fort’s turrets fired missiles at the German troops before the garrison surrendered.

Le fort Dorsner et géré entièrement  par une association indépendante de tout autre organisme,

de bénévoles "l'Association du Fort Dorsner"(A.F.D.)

"l'Association du Fort Dorsner"(A.F.D.)

Tél. : 06 72 56 42 70        mail : fort.dorsner@laposte.net

Facebook : facebook.com/fort.dorsner

Ouverture au public du sommet, avec vue panoramique sur la trouée de Belfort

et ses alentours - Circuit visite libre à l’extérieur du fort.

ENTREE 3€/pers. (gratuit pour les moins de 12 ans accompagnés). 

Plus d’une heure de visite libre dans les souterrains et au milieu de l’architecture militaire.
 

OUVERTURE CHAQUE DIMANCHE 

et jours fériés du 3 juillet au 18 septembre (inclus) : de 14 à 18h (fermeture des entrées à 17h15)

Possibilité de visite guidée d’avril à octobre (Réservation obligatoire) 

pour les groupes de 30 pers. maxi (40 €/groupe).
 

Maison du Tourisme 2 rue Clemenceau 90000 Belfort

Tél. : 03 84 55 90 90 - Fax : 03 84 55 90 70

E-mail : tourisme90@ot-belfort.fr

Quizz : Forts et citadelles

 - Compléments d’infos sur la Citadelle - Infos pratiques (accès, horaires) de la Citadelle  -

- Tarifs - Contact infos pratiques -

Belfort is located at the centre of a broad depression between the Vosges and Jura, known as the Belfort gap. This gap links Alsace, Germany and Switzerland with the Franche-Comté region and Rhone Valley. This means that it has not only been a major route for trade, but also for invasions, which explains the fortifications here.

Walled town and Castle In the Middle Ages, a stone wall with several towers protected a small town huddled at the foot of this rock, upon which sits a feudal castle whose existence can be traced back to 1226. Rendered obsolete by the invention of the metal bullet in the 15th century, these fortifications, which had been laid siege to seven times, were in a poor state when they underwent their first modernisation. Between 1637 and 1648, the Comte de la Suze added a fortified facade to the castle. Then, at the request of King Louis XIV, the famous engineer Vauban took his turn in modernising the fortress, adding hornworks and a barracks. However, the transformation was most spectacular in the town itself: between 1687 and 1703, the old city walls were flattened and replaced by a fortified pentagonal wall that doubled the area of the town, where magazines and barracks were built. Large sections of this new wall, which was part of Vauban's "second system", remain today, including three fortified towers and the Brisach gate with its complete fortified facade. Testament to the value of these fortifications came especially with the siege of 1815, which left the fortress untaken.
The first ring of forts In the late 18th and early 19th century, as the accuracy and mobility of artillery increased, towns could find themselves threatened by canons placed by the enemy on nearby hills. To prevent the occupation of this high ground, fortifications had to be built: this signalled the appearance of the first rings of forts around towns. With the exception of a few campaign fortifications carried out at the time of the Revolution and in 1815, the first modernisations of the stronghold since Vauban began in 1817, under the orders of General Haxo. The castle was completely revised and transformed into a modern fortress and the city walls altered, whilst to the northeast of the town, the Le Vallon entrenched camp was built, including the La Miotte and La Justice forts. Then, in 1857, a wall around the outskirts was foreseen, with the building of front 3 4 to the West of the town. The increase in the range of canons resulting from the appearance of rifled artillery the following year made new works to the South and East of the town essential. The Barres fort was built between 1865 and 1870. Lastly, in 1870, the first extension to the town's defences was completed, with the terraced redoubts of Les Perches and Bellevue (on the site of the current cemetery of the same name). Belfort underwent the memorable siege of 1870-1871, from which it emerged undefeated, with a ring of advanced forts located at a distance of around 1,200 - 1,500 metres from the original fortified city walls. After the war, as part of the "Séré de Rivières" programme, the Les Perches forts were rebuilt and a wall was built around the outskirts.
The castle The Belfort citadel has three concentric walls. Starting from outside the fortress, the first is the exterior wall, which contains Vauban's old hornworks, then there is the intermediate enclosure that contains a group of artillery casemates.
These two enclosures (built between 1820 and 1840) are the work of General Haxo. After the intermediate enclosure, the impressive structure of the Comte de la Suze's crownworks (1637-1648) comes into view. Overlooking this, a cavalaryman (a terreplein built on top of another work, doubling its firepower) houses the artillery casemates (1819-1826), behind which are the main courtyard and pink sandstone barracks dating from 1826. All that remains today of the mediaeval fortress is the well, the ditch (covered over and converted into a barracks in 1749) and the 13th-century Bourgeois tower. The castle was equipped with around a hundred open air or casemate-located canons and could provide safe shelter for over 1,000 men. It played a key role in the 1870-1871 siege and housed the stronghold command post until 1940.
Started in 1831, in roughly triangular shape, this is a bastioned fort with a cavalryman, designed to house around ten open-air canons.
On the western bastion is a tower that serves as a lookout. Hit by shell-fire in 1870-1871 and 1940, it was rebuilt each time, though more for sentimental than military reasons. Indeed, before the fort was built, this place was the site of a very old stone tower of uncertain origin and purpose, which became highly symbolic to the people of Belfort.
Strongly fortified in a roughly triangular shape, with two cavalrymen and a barracks for around 300 men, construction of La Justice fort began in 1826 to house around twenty open air artillery pieces.
On 18th June 1940, the fort's small garrison held out against the enemy for 9 hours, at the cost of heavy casualties. Vallon Facade Started in 1831 and finished in 1842, the Vallon Facade is a rampart, with a gate through it, connecting the La Miotte and La Justice forts and blocking the road to Alsace. With the natural rampart created by the hills of La Miotte and La Justice, this forms a protected quadrilateral: the entrenched encampment of Le Vallon, designed to act as an assembly area for a field army in times of war (and a refuge where necessary).
Les Barres was one of the last bastioned works to be built in France. Although some features are evidence of a reaction to advances in artillery, especially rifled artillery, Les Barres fort is largely traditional.
This large crownwork (one bastion and two half-bastions) was constructed between 1865 and 1870 to occupy the high ground of Les Barres in order to avoid enemy activity against the town's outskirts and Vauban's enclosure. The rampart is equipped for 25 open-air artillery pieces plus one in a casemate. The gorge is blocked by a single crenulated wall. Two impressive cross-members overhang the huge internal esplanade, each housing a powder magazine. A third powder magazine and a casemated barracks are contained under the ramparts. Over the frontage, a crenellated gallery runs the length of the scarp; this enabled the ditch to be fired upon. The powder magazine of the major central cross member was reinforced with a concrete shield in 1889. In 1893, large barracks were built on the internal esplanade to accommodate the stronghold's foot artillery regiment. After the demolition of these barracks when returned to civilian use, the fort regained its original appearance, apart from on one flank, where a road has been built through it.
Tourist Office 2 rue Clemenceau 90000 Belfort Tel.: +33 (0) 384 55 90 90 Fax: +33 (0) 384 55 90 70 E-mail: tourisme90@ot-belfort.fr Fortifications and Belfort Castle Free Parking Unaccompanied visits Guided tours No handicapped access Guided tours for groups by appointment

Le Musée des Troupes de Marine est une évocation illustrée aussi bien par ses collections très diversifiées, que par des archives et des documents iconographiques, des troupes coloniales de Richelieu à nos jours. L'une des missions du musée est de conserver la trace et les preuves du rôle pacificateur et civilisateur de la France dans son empire colonial.

Les collections sont constituées d'uniformes, d'insignes, d'armes, de coiffures et de décorations, affiches, dessins, documents photographiques, pièces d'archives, souvenirs de personnages, illustres ou non, etc. . soit environ 10.000 objets.

L'une des caractéristiques majeures des objets de cette collection est leur taille. Ils sont de dimensions modestes, mis à part la voiture de Gallieni et quelques pièces d'artillerie.

L'autre caractéristique est leur nombre : il s'agit de collections de grandes séries tels que 4.000 décorations, 700 fanions, 3.000 insignes métalliques et des dizaines de milliers d'images.

On estime qu'environ 50 % des objets proviennent de collections publiques (dépôts d'autres musées et récupération du patrimoine des salles d'honneur de régiments dissous à l'occasion de restructurations du ministère de la défense), l'autre moitié provenant des dons des particuliers.

Depuis 1993, le musée dispose d'un auditorium de 250 places où l'AAMTDM organise un cycle annuel de conférences.

À partir de l'an 2000, le musée organise, chaque année, une journée d'étude ou un colloque scientifique. Il présente chaque trimestre une nouvelle exposition temporaire et participe aux célébrations du ministère de la culture : Printemps des musées, Festival de la langue française, Nuit européenne des musées et Journées européennes du patrimoine. En 1996, l'ampleur de la documentation conservée au musée a motivé la création du Centre d'Histoire et d'Etudes des Troupes d'Outre-Mer (CHETOM), le centre de recherches du musée. Les chercheurs peuvent y consulter, sur rendez-vous, les archives, les fonds privés, les fonds cartographiques ou iconographiques et la bibliothèque spécialisée du musée forte de dix mille ouvrages.

À travers l'histoire des colonies, ce sont les principales étapes de l'Histoire de France qui sont présentées au Musée des Troupes de Marine. Le musée s'intègre dans un paysage culturel historique. En plus d'être la «maison mère» des Troupes de Marine, Fréjus a un patrimoine militaire particulièrement riche (notamment avec la présence d'une pagode bouddhique et d'une mosquée africaine sur sa commune). Il nous renvoie aussi au débarquement de Provence d'Août 1944.

Le rayonnement du musée est important, son expertise est reconnue et ses collections particulièrement sollicitées. Près de 480.000 visiteurs dont plus de 2.000 enfants et adolescents ont été accueillis dans le musée, très souvent dans le cadre de découverte du patrimoine. Le musée est également tourné vers les militaires, les jeunes engagés et les jeunes cadres viennent y trouver leurs racines . ces hommes et ces femmes qui entrent parmi le corps des soldats des Troupes de Marine ont une histoire à découvrir.

Sources : ©Musée des Troupes de Marine

The fortress, located on the hill at Montrond, at the confluence of the Cher and Marmande valleys, provides a unique panoramic view of the development of military architecture from the 13th to the 17th century. The restoration of the fortress, mainly based on voluntary, also contributes to the originality of its history. The first building was constructed on this site in 1225 on a mound approximately forty metres high, overlooking the Cher and Marmande valleys. The base of a robust, cylindrical"Philippian"keep, 16 metres in diameter and with walls over 4 metres thick at the base, was uncovered between 1977 and 1980.

A major reconstruction campaign was led by Charles d'Albret in the early 15th century, after the destruction wrought by the English. Restoration of the site, badly damaged by the conflicts in the 16th century, was led in the 17th century by Maximilien de Béthune, Duc de Sully who bought the Chateau in 1606, later followed by the Condés. Sully converted it into a residence, restoring, enlarging and embellishing the old fortified castle to turn it into a luxurious residence, in the tastes of the day and in line with his wealth. He also modernised the defences, which had not kept pace with the development of artillery. He sold the chateau to Henri II de Bourbon, prince of Condé, in 1621. Henri completed Montrond's conversion into a redoubtable fortress that would cause great concern to the Royal forces during the Fronde rebellion. For the fortifications, he employed a specialist, Jean Sarrazin, known as the "Prince's Mathematician" or "the intendant of fortifications". Sarrazin worked for over ten years on the design and construction of the powerful network of fortifications reinforced by tiers of bastions up the side of the hill, which inspired other French, Italian and Dutch military engineers of his time.
Finished around 1650, Montrond Fortress was considered to be one of the strongest in France. It is an example of reinforced façade fortification, using a line of constructions on several tiers, depending on the topography of the hillside. These were separated by numerous ditches dug into the rock which were often connected by underground passages. This is also the only example of this type of fortification in the center of France. During the Fronde rebellion, Montrond was the last du Berry and du Bourbonnais stronghold to hold out against the Royal armies. The siege began in October 1651 and only ended on 1st September 1652, with the capitulation with a garrison that was exhausted, starving and decimated by disease. Mazarin ordered the fort to be demolished, with most of the reinforced façade works and entrances to the underground paths mined. The Chateau was abandoned around 1735. It was used as a source of stone by the inhabitants of Saint-Amand in the revolutionary period and converted into a public promenade from 1834. The site will experience ultimately a renaissance in 1970, thanks to the initiative of young volunteers and the creation of an association, Chase Even today, the rehabilitation of the fortress continues, with ever-new discoveries.
Association C.H.A.S.A 10, Allée du Prince de Condé 18200 Saint Amand Montrond Tel: +33 (0) 248 96 79 64 Fax: +33 (0) 248 96 47 36 e-mail: chasa.montrond@wanadoo.fr Guided tours 1th April- 30th September Every day except Monday Timesof tours: 10.00am, 2.00pm, 4.30pm Outside of this period and these hours, tours are available on request.

In May 1940, the village of Stonne was the scene of fighting between the Wehrmacht and French tanks. Taken and retaken seven times in four days, the place was completely destroyed.

A memorial, which today also marks the start of a tourist trail in the centre of the village, commemorates the French army’s efforts of resistance against the German invasion. 

In 1940, France believed it was protected by the Maginot Line. The Ardennes mountain range was considered impassable. The defence in Meuse was assured by the 2nd Army under Huntziger from the Bar valley to Longuyon, whereas the Sedan region was defended by the 10th army corps under Grandsard.

In the month of May, the Germans attacked the Ardennes in order to breach the mountains at Sedan.

On 11th May, the French cavalry, which had gone ahead of the Germans in Belgium, retreated. Huntziger changed his system, in vain: the Wehrmacht was at the entrance to Sedan on 12th May and began operations to cross the Meuse the very next day.

On 14th May, the Germans forced their way through at Nouzonville cemetery and were in a position to take the defenders of Monthermé from the rear. Huntziger reinforced the defensive system in place on the Stonne-Forêt du Mont Dieu line. However, he had to abandon the area of land between Chiers and Meuse, which ended up widening the distance between the 1st and the 10th armies.

On 15th May, the Germans took the offensive on Stonne with aircraft and panzers. Between the 15th and 18th May, the village changed hands 19 times and the losses – 33 French tanks and 24 German panzers – are a testament to the fierceness of the battle to hold this strategic position. In order to turn the position around, the Wehrmacht started an offensive in the direction of Tannay, on 23rd May, took down the 1st Hussards Regiment there and seized the village on 24th May. Nearby, the 3rd Colonial Infantry Division (3rd DIC), that held the Forêt du Mont Dieu, was forced to withdraw along a narrow corridor the night of the 24th May and permanently abandon the area. This battle took the lives of 3,000 Germans and 1,000 members of the French Army.

A remembrance memorial was created comprising:

• 1 monument in pink granite engraved with the names of all the units that fought in the region,

• 1 B1 bis battle tank, the same as those that won fame here during the first tank battle in the last world war,

• 1 viewpoint indicator showing the different lines of resistance,

• 1 wall representing the ruins embedded with two black marble plaques, one showing the progress of the battle, the other a map of the history trail.

At the bottom of the hill in Stonne (known locally as "Sugar Loaf Hill"), a modern AMX 13 tank is a tribute to all armoured armies, from the first to the last: the Leclerc tank.

The remembrance tourist trail passing through the villages bearing witness to the battles of May and June 1940 is signposted and dotted with information panels. Fourteen stages retrace the events that unfolded in these villages, an homage to the 5,000 French soldiers who fell on the field of honour in this area during the Battle of the Ardennes.

Tourist Information Office for the cantons of Carignan, Mouzon and Raucourt Le Paquis de Frappant

08110 Mogues

Tel.: 03.24.29.79.91

Fax: 03.24.29.79.45

E-mail : officedetourismedes3cantons@wanadoo.fr

The grounds of the psychiatric hospital in Cadillac-sur-Garonne, a bastide founded in the 13^th century with the support of the King of England, received 98 World War One veterans with facial and brain injuries.

Its old cemetery keeps their memory alive... Among the belligerent countries involved in WWI, France and Germany mobilised the largest number of men of fighting age: 80% of all men between the ages of fifteen and forty-nine.

Once the armistice had been signed, alongside the families of the 1,375,800 dead and missing, the country had to take care of 4,266,000 injured veterans, of which there were ten to fifteen thousand with facial injuries, called “Gueules Cassées”, a term that originated with Colonel Yves Picot, founder of the Union des Blessés de la Face (Union of Facial Injury Victims). Victims of the brutality of the first industrial conflict, during which 70% of injuries were caused by incessant artillery fire, these men were desocialised by the war. They had to re-learn civilian life, deal with their handicaps, and live under the eyes of a nation embarrassed by these heroes who did not “Die for France”, a reflection of the country’s condition at the end of the war.

To the north-east of the bastide of Cadillac, in the Gironde department, the “brain injuries” section at the psychiatric hospital contains the graves of 98 injured veterans who came back from the front mentally ruined and were put here to live out the rest their lives, as at the establishment in Moussy-le-Vieux (Seine-et-Marne) and Coudon (Var).

These men were doubly forgotten after their deaths because, as they were patients at the psychiatric hospital, their deaths were not recorded by a municipal officer. Their tombs and their identification markers, many of which have fallen off, are now anonymous.

Two plaques were presented, however, in 1937 and 1956 by veterans from the Gironde department at the initiative of the Saint-Blaise Association in Cadillac, honouring “the memory of their comrades, victims of brain injuries in the War of 1914-1918”.

Website: Mémoire des hommes

The Ouvrage Rohrbach comprises 2 combat blocks, both of which can be visited, an entrance and a veritable small town dug in under 25 metres of limestone. The crew’s 173 men under the command of Captain de Saint Ferjeux enjoyed the comforts provided by modern kitchens, an electric generator, an effective ventilation system and the barracks. Its weaponry comprised an infantry casemate a 2 AM turret, and an infantry casemate with an AM turret.

Ouvrage Rohrbach is located between Sarreguemines and Bitche (N62) at Rohrbach-les-Bitche, heading toward Guising

The structure can be visited on Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays at 3 pm.

Fortweb website on European fortifications

Website dedicated to the Maginot Line

Quizz : Forts and citadels

Located close to the Metz-Saint Avold-Sarrebruck road, the Ouvrage Bambesch is made of three blocks connected by underground galleries.

The fort was built in 1932 to the east of the Bois de Bambesch and was part of the fortified sector of Faulquemont. Following the French army’s retreat in June 1940, the isolated structure was surrounded and attacked on 20 June 1940 by German troops in the 167th infantry division. Demolished by an 88mm anti-aircraft and anti-tank cannon, block 2 (south) was evacuated and the men took refuge in the gallery 30 metres underground. The enemy finally attacked block 3 which risked trapping the crew at any moment under the building. After the war, the building was maintained by military engineer specialists until the fort was bought by the town of Bambiderstroff.

The site opened to the public on 31 August 1973. All the installations are in good condition, Including machines, soldiers’ barracks, infirmary, electrical installation and firing chambers. The remains of the former barracks built just next to the outpost have been cleared to improve the view.

Guide association

M. Deguglielmo Tel: +33 (0)3 87 90 31 95

Bambiderstroff Town Hall

Tel: +33 (0)3 87 90 30 11

Fax: +33 (0)3 87 90 41 74

The building is open every second and fourth Sunday from April to September and Easter Monday, Whit Monday and 15 August. Group tours even on weekdays available on request.

Site Fortweb sur les fortifications européennes

Site consacré à la ligne Maginot

Quizz : Forts et citadelles