En un regard
Le château en bref
Fort de l'Est is a military fort designed to protect Paris, located in Saint-Denis, built between 1841 and 1843 as part of the Thiers Wall and, like fifteen other detached forts. The latter, Prime Minister to Louis-Philippe I, had work begun as early as 1840, without waiting for the finance law of 1841, which allocated 140 million for an immense defensive belt (33 kilometres long, 17 detached forts, 94 bastions, 17 gates, 23 barriers, 8 postern gates, 8 railway crossings and 5 crossings of rivers or canals). Nearly 25,000 workers worked on it.Developments in artillery soon rendered these fortifications obsolete, and there was talk of ceding the wall as early as 1882 (the deputy Martin Nadaud launched the debate). In 1919, the site was transferred to the City of Paris for 100 million francs. In 1953, the non ædificandi zone was repealed.
The fort is still used by the army (many reservists train there, units are stationed there and it houses the headquarters of the National Federation of Reserve Non-Commissioned Officers. Rare photographs are available on the Internet.
Its northern bastion was cut off in 1963 to make way for the Autoroute du Nord, from which it is perfectly visible; it now faces the Lycée Suger, built in 1994.
Military archives relating to the mutinies of the First World War are kept there, along with a number of unclassified archives from former garrison libraries.
