Fort de Sainte-Agnès

En un regard

Le château en bref

Fort de Sainte-Agnès, or the Sainte-Agnès mixed work (ouvrage mixte de Sainte-Agnès), is one of the ten large artillery and infantry works of the Alpes-Maritimes fortified sector, designed by the Commission for the Organisation of Fortified Regions and built between 1932 and 1938 by the Italian company Spada. Located at an altitude of around 800 metres, a few kilometres from the Italian border, it is the southernmost point of the Maginot Line and was intended to block the coastal infiltration routes. The work forms a veritable underground town hewn into the rock, with some 2,000 m² of galleries able to shelter up to 350 men, equipped with electricity, heating, telecommunications, a gas-neutralisation system and three months of autonomy. In June 1940, its garrison fired 1,201 75 mm shells and 234 135 mm shells during the fighting against Italian troops, one of the rare French military successes of the campaign. Owned by the commune of Sainte-Agnès, the work is today preserved as a memorial and can be visited on guided tours.