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Concept
Fort de Bicêtre
Summary
The Fort de Bicêtre is a military structure built between 1841 and 1845 during the reign of Louis-Philippe during a time of tension between France and England, in the Paris suburb of Kremlin-Bicêtre. The fort is part of the Thiers Wall fortifications of Paris, built under a program of defensive works initiated by Adolphe Thiers. The fort served as a prison for those involved in the French coup of 1851.
Occupied by the Prussians in 1871, the fort was briefly occupied by communards during the Paris Commune. After 1874, under the direction of General Raymond Adolphe Séré de Rivières, the ring of Thiers fortifications was reinforced by a second ring of forts, reflecting the increased range of artillery during the intervening years. The Fort de Bicêtre was not modernized at this time, since it was considered too close to Paris to be useful.
From 1940 to 1944 the fort was occupied by German troops. After World War II the fort remained a military post, successively accommodating an artillery unit, a Marine infantry battalion, and from 1946 a military radio facility.
In the 1840s, prime minister Adolphe Thiers proposed that Paris be transformed into a fortified city. The Thiers plan envisioned a wall around the city, reinforced by a ring of forts in the city's suburbs. Built between 1841 and 1845, the Fort de Bicêtre was one of seventeen bastioned forts.
The forts were cited in advance of the city walls to keep an enemy out of artillery range of the capital. As a result of shortages of money, manpower and materièl, some of the forts' armament and personnel were drawn from the Navy.
The Fort de Bicêtre was initially commanded by naval Capitaine de Frégate Fournier, with an armament of 86 artillery pieces. Like many locations around Paris, the ground under the fort had been tunneled and quarried for stone. These quarries were sealed or fortified. Like all of the detached forts, the Fort de Bicêtre was composed of an enclosing masonry wall with battlements and interior earth embankments, and was surrounded by a cleared glacis.
Official source
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