Fort Grand Duke of Hesse

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Topographical-military plan of the city and fortress Mainz from 1815. Engraving by Johann Conrad Felsing , editor Dr. B. Hundeshagen
Crossing of the XII Federal Army Corps (Saxony) across the Rhine at Fort Montebello (Mainz) on August 3rd.
The ship bridge to Mainz, just as the view from the fort could have been possible

The Fort Montebello , at the time of the German Confederation in Fort Grand Duke of Hesse , was renamed a fort in Mainz-Kastel . It was part of the outer belt around the Mainz fortress . The fort, located on the right bank of the Rhine, had the task of contributing to the covering of the ship bridge as an external work in conjunction with the forts Kastel, Mars and Petersaue .

Historical

After the Peace of Campo Formio , Mainz came permanently to France and was reinforced by the French genius management on the Rhine front to the north. Construction of the fort began in 1805, eight years after the annexation of Mainz - the year after Napoleon I was coronated as emperor , and ended in 1813. Bonaparte wanted the city and fortress to be expanded into a stronghold of his empire together with Strasbourg and Antwerp. Even the construction of a new stone bridge over the Rhine had already been decreed with the costs for this major work. The fortification was built in a strategic location to protect the left wing of Mainz fortress from the Duchy of Nassau . In this task she was supported by several batteries that had already been built by Simon François Gay de Vernon on the Petersaue . The fort got its name from the Battle of Montebello (1800) .

Many works on this north side of Mainz fortress were not yet completed when the wars of liberation began .

Establishment

The fort was built on the valley path of the Rhine between Kastel and Biebrich and consisted of an ensemble of a full bastion and two lunettes .

After Mainz fell into German territory as a result of the dissolution of the Rhine Confederation , the military authorities immediately switched to upgrading the city of Mainz militarily. Great efforts were made to build both those still planned by France and new fortifications. The completion of the newly designed and reinforced main wall around Kastel was completed between 1828 and 1830. The protection of the ship's bridge was further strengthened by the defensible reduit barracks on the banks of the Rhine, so that after 1834 there was no need for further modernization of the main wall.

That the further requested work on the southern and eastern banks of the Petersaue is to be suspended for the time being, and that this object is to be included in the applications for the manufacture of the fortress of Mainz, in particular the Fort Montebello, which are being processed by the military commission, insofar as the need arises: this will be The high Federal Assembly put up with it all the more because the Military Commission declared the work in question to be not very urgent.
Minutes of the German Federal Assembly from 1839

Only in an inventory list of the fortress plans of the Prussian War Ministry from 1843 are several plans for reconstruction and reinforcement of the fort. On a plan of the city of Mainz dated to 1890, the bastionary system can still be clearly seen. The former plant had to be leveled by 1921 after the Treaty of Versailles . It gave way to modern- style houses . Only the street "Im Fort Montebello" still reminds of it today.

Web links

  • Fort Montebello near dilibri FC Vogel's panorama of the Rhine or views of the right and left banks of the Rhine from Mainz to Coblenz / the right bank of the Rhine after nature drawn by JF Dielmann Vogel, Frankfurt am Main, 1833

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Pierer's Universal Lexikon , Volume 10. Altenburg 1860, pp. 746-748.
  2. ^ Dictionnaire de la conversation et de la lecture , Volume 37, Verlag Belin-Mandar, Paris, 1837, p. 359
  3. ^ Karl Anton Schaab : The history of the federal fortress Mainz, historically and militarily based on the sources. Self-published by the author, Mainz 1835, p. 477
  4. ↑ Winfried Bliss: The fortress plans of the Prussian War Ministry: an inventory , Volume 1, Böhlau Verlag Köln Weimar, 2008, ISBN 978-3-412-05006-1
  5. ^ Mainz 1890 Paul-Georg Custodis: The city architect Eduard Kreyssig and the building development of the city of Mainz in the second half of the 19th century. Mainz, 1979, p. 226, cited there as the source: Heinrich Wothe: Mainz, a home book. Mainz 1928 and 1929, Fig. 59
  6. ↑ Martin Klöffler: Fortress inventory \ state of Hesse 6. extended and corrected edition, Dusseldorf, 2008

Coordinates: 50 ° 1 ′ 10.4 ″  N , 8 ° 16 ′ 18.2 ″  E