Set on a plateau at an altitude of 696 m, above the village of Eze, the Fort de la Revère offers a 360 ° view, between sea and mountain. “But despite its positioning on the Mediterranean, it is above all to monitor the Paillon valley and prevent the entry of Italian soldiers that it was built here between 1882 and 1885”, says Jérôme Bracq, head of the heritage service. culture within the Alpes-Maritimes department.
At the time, it was the Triple Alliance concluded between the German Empire, the dual Austro-Hungarian monarchy and the Kingdom of Italy that worried the French authorities. The fort was then designed to defend the border. But this military work, opened to the public for the first time this weekend as part of the European Heritage Days and destined to become a museum, quickly proved to be fragile.
“A huge mess”
“This is the story of a huge mess, raises the specialist. The army only occupied it until 1915 ”, at the time of the Great War. Despite its ten firing stations, 16 artillery pieces and an impressive powder magazine (which could contain up to 85 tonnes of black powder), “it was already obsolete when it opened”, continues Jérôme Bracq.
“Between the time of its design and its inauguration, the weaponry had evolved and the few meters of earth that covered it could not have protected it from shells,” he explains. Built on the Séré de Rivières system, the Fort de la Revère does not have the concreting of the “Maginot” structures which would have been necessary at the time.
But its (relative) weakness does not detract from its architectural interest. This is also why the Alpes-Maritimes department, owner of the site since 1995, decided to transform it to make it, by 2023 or 2024, a “Museum of the history of fortifications”, very rich on the Côte d’Azur, announced the community in 20 minutes. Carved into the rock on the Grande Corniche plateau and surrounded by a ditch 7 to 8 m deep, the building stretches 240 m long by 120 m wide. “And an entire facade, over 150 m, is adorned with freestone”, specifies the head of the cultural heritage service.
Used by the Air Force
Used by the Vichy government to imprison allies during World War II, the fort then became a logistics center for the Air Force. “Between 1955 and 1964, the soldiers of Mount Agel [une station radar voisine, sur les hauteurs de Monaco] were housed there. On the walls of some barracks in the barracks, we can also see caricatures that they have drawn and that we are working to preserve, ”explains Jérôme Bracq.
Then transformed into a training and storage center, the building was finally abandoned by the army in the 1980s. And it was only this weekend, 136 years after its commissioning, that it will finally be unveiled to the public.