En un regard
Le château en bref
Fort Saint-Julien, known as the Feste Manteuffel during the German annexation, occupies the heights of Saint-Julien-lès-Metz overlooking Metz and the Moselle valley. Detached from the first fortified belt of Metz, it was begun by the French in 1867, remained unfinished in 1870, and was completed and strengthened by German engineers between 1871 and 1891. With a pentagonal bastioned plan and partly sunken, it extends over more than fifteen hectares, surrounded by earthen embankments and dry ditches, with masonry works and vaulted spaces. A training camp under the annexation, a troop staging post in 1914–1918, it was reoccupied by France in 1919 and then by the Germans in 1940. On 18 and 19 November 1944, during the Battle of Metz, it was attacked by the American 378th Infantry Regiment, and its some two hundred defenders surrendered. Part of the fort has today been converted into a restaurant, with function rooms, a bar and a lounge fitted out beneath the stone vaults.