Fort de Penthièvre

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Fort de Penthièvre from the north
Plan of the fort

The Fort de Penthièvre is a fortification on the territory of the commune of Saint-Pierre-Quiberon in the Morbihan department in France .

history

After the siege of Lorient and the looting of the Quiberon peninsula in 1746, it was decided the following year to build a fortress to secure it. This then strengthened the defense system of southern Brittany, which also included Fort Bloqué and Fort Cigogne .

It was built at the instigation of the governor of Brittany Louis Jean Marie de Bourbon, duc de Penthièvre , whose name it still bears today. At the narrowest point of the peninsula there is an upstream hill (called La Palice ) opposite the fort . This was built here after the English landed on the Quiberon peninsula in 1746 by soldiers from Maréchal de camp de Saint-Clair. It has been almost completely preserved and is located on the east side of the "Avenue de l'Océan".

After the English siege of Lorient (September 29 to October 10, 1746), which served as a base for the French East India Company , which was in competition with the British East India Company and which was to be eliminated, the Duc de Penthièvre ordered Amiral de France and governor of Brittany, in 1747 the construction of a fortification at the narrowest point of access to the peninsula. According to the plans of the royal engineer de Marolles, the " Redoute of Quiberon" was created. The walls were three meters high, and inside there was accommodation for 30 men and a powder magazine. It was named "Fort de Penthièvre" after the initiator.

In 1795 the royalist army of the emigrants landed on the peninsula and, from June 27th, besieged the fort, which had been renamed "Fort Sans-Culotte" by the revolutionaries, with 1500 men, 150 of them British soldiers. After four days, the crew of 700 men from the 41 e demi-brigade de bataille (formerly 1st battalion of the 41 e régiment d'infanterie ci-devant "La Reine" ) had to surrender, as they had no supplies of any kind. 400 men of the crew changed sides and joined the royal armed forces, the others were taken to England as prisoners of war. At the end of the failed mission of the royalists, the fort was recaptured by Général Hoche's troops .

It was then abandoned for a few years until, at the suggestion of the First Consul Napoléon Bonaparte and Armand de Marescot, after the end of the Second Coalition War, it was reinforced and extensively expanded according to the Vauban system . The work continued during the First Empire and was only completed in 1848 at the end of the July monarchy .

For further reinforcement, a wall for infantry defense with a covered path , a ditch and glacis in front of it, was created, as well as a defensive barracks that functioned as the central structure. Up to 400 men could be accommodated in it “protected against bombs” (“shatterproof”). Basically it was an earthwork with brick walls in the form of a double tenaille with the defensive barracks behind in the form of a hornwork . The flanks were each secured with a half bastion, the entrance with a Montalembert tower . The main line of defense was laid out on the land side in the direction of the Bay of Quiberon, the structures are made of masonry. The sea side rises on a high rock and was therefore free of storms .

From 1917 German prisoners of war were housed in the fort .

On June 23, 1933, military use as a fortification was given up, the fort was classified as a historic monument and handed over to the custody of the National Navy , but without any further use.

Memorial plaque for French resistance fighters executed in the fort

During the Second World War it was integrated into the Atlantic Wall by the German Wehrmacht . It was reinforced with three concrete bunkers and equipped with an unknown number of anti-tank cannons and heavy machine guns.

From April to July 1944, it served as a prison for members of the Maquis , 49 of whom were sentenced to death and executed by shooting in the moat of the fort . A memorial plaque in the (accessible) dig reminds of those who were executed , who are commemorated every July 13th.

A memorial to the victims of Nazi rule in the form of an obelisk was erected beforehand . At its foot there is a granite slab with the coat of arms of Brittany and the inscription:

"Les Martyrs
Du Fort
Penthièvre
Les Français
Reconnaissants
Résistance 1944 "

Since 1969, the fort has been under the responsibility of the 3 e régiment d'infanterie de marine in Vannes , which uses it as a command training facility (initiation command) with a climbing garden and for maritime warfare.

The interior is a restricted military area , access is not permitted.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Le Fort de Penthièvre. French Ministry of Defense
  2. ^ Fort de Penthièvre - Saint-Pierre Quiberon ( Memento of March 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ). In: Topic Topos.
  3. ^ Fort Penthièvre. In: Chemins de mémoire , Ministère des Armées, edited by the Direction des patrimoines, de la mémoire et des archives (DPMA).
  4. ^ Fort de Penthièvre in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French).
  5. ^ Probably French captured artillery
  6. ↑ Saint-Pierre-Quiberon. Plaque commemorative du Fort de Penthièvre. In: MemorialGenWeb .

Web links

Coordinates: 47 ° 32 ′ 34 ″  N , 3 ° 8 ′ 13 ″  W.