Fort Napoleon (Ostend)
The Fort Napoleon is a military fortress in the Belgian coastal resort Ostend . Today the facility is a modern museum with indoor and outdoor catering as well as conference rooms. The fort was built from 1811 to 1814 on behalf of the French Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte and was intended to serve as a base for an invasion of Great Britain . It was used by the German occupation forces in the First and Second World Wars . After years of deterioration, it was transferred to the Flemish Heritage Foundation (Stifting Vlaams Erfgoed) in 1995 and extensively restored. In 2000 the fort was opened as a museum.
history
construction time
Napoléon Bonaparte had visited Ostend several times since 1798 and wanted to use the strategically important location of the city for his goals in the Napoleonic Wars . From 1803 the coastline near Ostend was fortified militarily after the British attacked the city and besieged it until 1802. In 1811 construction began in the dunes east of the Ostend harbor. More than 400 Spanish prisoners of war built a two-storey central building with a side length of 28 meters including an inner courtyard from brick based on the model of traditional fortress architecture on a pentagonal floor plan ( pentagon ), and dug a dry trench through which covered battlements ( caponnière ) with loopholes lead to the outer eight-meter-high circular wall . Weapons and ammunition were stored on the upper floor. The fort was equipped with a simple kitchen and bakery, but only had a toilet in one battlement. Rainwater was collected in a cistern . The "Fort Impérial" was intended for 260 soldiers and officers and equipped with 46 cannons.
1815 to 1914
Imperial troops no longer got around to using the fort for military purposes, because the completion fell in the phase of the collapse of the French Empire. British troops occupied it in 1815, the same year it was taken over by Dutch troops that the name "Fort Willem I" after the first Dutch Royal Fort William I gave. When the state of Belgium was founded in 1830, the official name was "Fort Leopold" after the first Belgian King Leopold I , but the population called it "Fort Napoléon" after the builder. In 1865 Ostend's status as a fortress city was ended. The fort remained a military area, but was practically no longer needed. During the Franco-Prussian War , around one hundred French prisoners of war from the Battle of Sedan in September 1870 were temporarily interned in the fort .
1914 to 1918
During the First World War , when troops of the German Empire occupied almost all of Belgium, the fort was used by German troops. They modernized it by installing electric lighting, creating heating facilities and breaking two entrances through the circular walls. In the part of the fort that was reserved for German officers as a casino, the painter Heinrich-Otto Pieper (* 1881) installed a painting called "The Barbarian" above a fireplace. It is an allegorical parody of the Bremen Town Musicians . The plastered painting shows a German knight in armor , next to him the severed heads of an Italian, a French, a Japanese, a Senegalese and a Russian. In the background there are national flags that have been changed and painted over several times. The original version could not be reconstructed. The German Kaiser Wilhelm II visited the fort on July 25, 1916, and Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg on May 28, 1917 .
1918 to 1944
After the defeat of the German troops in World War I, the fort was looted by the people of Ostend. It gradually deteriorated. Eventually the idea was developed to set it up as a local museum. Construction began and in 1932 it was used as a museum for the first time. This use ended with the Second World War. In 1939 a military observation post was set up here. The museum was closed. On May 31, 1940, the German military took over the fort as barracks for artillerymen . Remaining museum pieces were brought to safety on June 18, 1940 in the cellar of the courthouse in Ostend. The upper platform of the fort was provided with a one meter thick concrete cover layer, so that the loopholes from the Napoleonic era have since been too low to be used by shooters standing up.
1944 to 1994
After the liberation of Belgium in 1944, the fort was again plundered by the population. Belgian and British infantrymen moved into the fort. They guarded a nearby prisoner-of-war camp and protected a British military hospital. After the end of the Second World War, the fort remained a military area, it was finally cleared of ammunition and mines. In 1949 the local council decided to use it as a play area for children in the summer months. Its use was only temporary, and eventually interest in the building was lost. In 1956 all entrances were closed. In 1963 the fort became the property of the Belgian tax authorities. On July 6, 1976, the fort was listed as a historical monument. Various possible uses were discussed, from the naval museum to the hotel. But nothing happened for two decades. Young Ostenders gained access to the building that was neglected by the state and met for discreet rendezvous or celebrated parties. Graffiti originates from this time, some of which has been preserved as evidence of that time.
1994 to 2000
The Vlaams Erfgoed Foundation was established in 1994. The fort was leased to her on August 20, 1996. The extensive renovation and reconstruction work lasted until 2000. The plans came from the Brussels architects Benny Govaert and Damiaan Vanhoutte, the interior was designed by Fabiaan Van Severen. The project was supported by the Flemish Community, the Province of West Flanders and the City of Ostend. The museum was opened on April 7, 2000. The fort has become a tourist attraction. It is used regularly for receptions and seminars. In summer there are performances from the “Theater aan Zee” series.
Fort Napoleon in painting
The military building also appears as a motif in the painting, including a work by the painter Emile Spilliaert (1858–1913) from 1885 and his great-nephew Leon Spilliaert from 1934. The picture shows the entrance gate and a caponnière.
Web links
- Fort Napoleon website (Dutch)
Coordinates: 51 ° 14 ′ 19.7 ″ N , 2 ° 56 ′ 6 ″ E