Fort de Bellegarde
The Fort de Bellegarde is a fortress of the 17th century on the French-Spanish border. It is located above the village of Le Perthus in the Pyrénées-Orientales department .
The fortification was created as a customs post and to control and block the route to France.
history
The history of Fort de Bellegarde begins with the Kingdom of Mallorca . In 1285, when this kingdom had existed for less than ten years, Pierre III d'Aragon posed a strong threat to the King of Mallorca Jacques II de Majorque , in particular who was owned and resided in the county of Perpignan. After the failed crusade against Aragón , James II had to cede this fortification to Aragón, among other things. After the King of Aragon had given up the military threat to his southern neighbor during the 14th century, the building was only used as a customs post. With the Peace of the Pyrenees of 1659, the territory of Les Perthus fell to France, which already led to the first expansion measures. During the Dutch War , Bellegarde was besieged and taken by the Spaniards at the beginning of 1674, who immediately began to strengthen the complex. An army under Count Friedrich von Schomberg was able to take the fortress again on July 29, 1675 after ten days of siege.
- War of Roussillon
After the French National Convention had declared war on Spain on March 7, 1793, a Spanish army moved north across the border on April 17, 1793 to protect the inhabitants of the region and the refugees who were staying there. General Ricardos moved through the Vallespir region and occupied the village of Prats de Mollo on May 23, 1793. On June 5, the small Fort Lagarde above Prats de Mollo was forced to surrender and occupied. Then the Spaniards moved on in the valley and took Bellegarde on June 25th. This remained in the hands of the Spaniards until, after a four-day siege , it was recaptured on September 7, 1794 by the troops of Général Jacques François Dugommier .
From January to February 1939, the fort served as a place of internment for the Republicans of the Spanish Civil War who had fled across the French border from General Franco's troops .
During the German occupation in World War II , the fort was used by the Gestapo for prisoners of war, Spanish-Republican refugees and their escape helpers who had initially escaped and then captured again.
Building
Originally it was just a defense observation tower. It was about 20 meters high and the wall was 1.5 meters thick. After various stages of expansion in the following centuries, Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban visited the facility in 1679 and approved the plan of his engineer Christian Rousselot de Monceaux to enlarge and considerably strengthen the summit fort. A double wall in the bastionary system with five bastions was placed around the core. The ridge was sealed off to the south, to the Spanish border, with a hornwork . The double wall made of masonry is for the most part surrounded by a dry moat. The throat is also protected by a wet ditch between the two bastions. The glacis is about 1000 meters long and is reinforced by entrenchments on the southeast corner, on the eastern and northern front. In the other areas, the mountainside was flatter and required more massive defensive positions. In the southwest and south, as well as in the western access area, the curtains of Ravelins were placed. (The northern ravelin drawn on the plan of Rousselot de Monceaux was not realized.) From the access ravelin, which is entered via a ramp, a brick bridge leads to the main entrance, the "Porte de France", and is interrupted there by a drawbridge. The fort had a well, a chapel, a hospital, a bakery, a windmill and barracks for 600 men. These were partly built into the horn factory and are now in ruins. A covered path led from the horn factory to the fort.
The chapel is 11.20 meters long and 12.50 meters high. In the 19th century it was divided into two floors. The well-ventilated powder magazines were located in the small bastions. The well has a diameter of six meters and is 62 meters deep.
Publicity
The fort is open to visitors from May to September daily from 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. There are short guided tours that explain the fort's military history and architecture.
Since June 26, 1967, the fort has been included in the list of historical monuments (Monuments historiques). It is owned by the municipality, which is constantly having restoration work carried out.
Trivia
In the movie The Man from Marseille , the fort is part of the plot. It serves as a criminal prison here, but it never was. Coordinates: 42 ° 27 ′ 30 ″ N , 2 ° 51 ′ 32 ″ E
Footnotes
- ↑ Dr Hofer (dir.), Nouvelle Biographie générale , Copenhague, Rosenkilde et Bagger, 1969, t. XLIII, nobr | col. 577.
- ↑ Les Pyrénées-Orientales: Encyclopédie illustrée du Pays catalan, private, 2002, p. 55
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20081113175717/http://www.vauban.asso.fr/fortifications/bellegarde.htm
- ↑ L'année suivante, Louvois accepte l'essentiel du projet. Les travaux sont engaged name = Ayats> Alain Ayats, "Louis XIV et le Roussillon", sur mediterranees.net .
- ↑ Fort de Bellegarde in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
