The fortifications of Bucharest are a ring of thirty six fortifications (18 forts and 18 batteries) built in late 19th century that surround

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

, the capital of

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

. A report by the War Ministry led the celebrated

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

military architect

Henri Alexis Brialmont Henri-Alexis Brialmont (Venlo, 25 May 1821 – Brussels, 21 July 1903), nicknamed The Belgian Vauban after the French military architect, was a Belgian army officer, politician and writer of the 19th century, best known as a military archi ...

(who made several visits to Bucharest, meeting with

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

Carol I in the process) to draft a plan for the city's fortifications, with construction beginning in 1884. The forts, about 4 km apart, cost 111.5 million gold lei (the equivalent of 614 mil euro of today, of which only 15 million were initially allocated), or three times the annual army budget. The forts took over two decades to build, and work was quite complex; the walls are two metres thick in places. All eighteen forts were linked by a road and a railway, which today is DN100, Bucharest's ring road. Eighteen subterranean batteries were placed between the forts, and the fortification ring included some 240 pieces of artillery in all. Romania, which had recently won its independence from the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

, undertook this enormous effort in keeping with the prevailing military doctrine of the day, which said the capital city should be defended at all costs. In case of invasion, Bucharest was to be the point of retreat, but also the place where significant military operations would begin, spreading from the

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , p ...

to the

Carpathians The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at . The range stretches ...

. At the beginning of the 20th century, chemical and aeronautical advances rendered the forts obsolete soon after their completion. Explosives and aerial bombardment made classical fortifications useless in modern warfare. In 1914, the

Battle of Liège A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and for ...

, in which the German Army broke through fortifications also designed by Brialmont with greater ease than expected, alarmed the authorities in Bucharest. The forts' artillery pieces—all top-notch Krupp cannons—were quickly dismantled and transformed into mobile artillery. By 1916, when the German Army was approaching Bucharest, the forts had already been abandoned, and the city was taken without much difficulty. Battery 9-10 Main Entrance (5179933451)

Today, the military has abandoned most of the forts. Stray dogs seek shelter in some of them; storage space and mushroom-growing facilities are other reported uses. During the

Communist era A Communist Era is a sustained period of national government by a single party following the philosophy of Marxism–Leninism. Many countries have experienced such a period of Communist rule. Current communist states China The Chinese Communist ...

, Fort 18 in Chiajna was used as a pickled goods market. However, the military still employs some of the forts, those to the southwest of the city in particular. They serve as firing ranges and munitions deposits, also housing army units; civilians are forbidden entry. The best-known fort is number 13, at

Jilava Jilava is a commune in Ilfov county, Muntenia, Romania, near Bucharest. It is composed of a single village, Jilava. The name derives from a Romanian word of Slavic origin ( Bulgarian жилав ''žilav'' (tough), which passed into Romanian as '' ...

—a military prison from 1907, a feared destination for political prisoners and place of execution during the Communist era, and now still a penitentiary. Another well-known fort—and the most visited one—is Battery 9-10, located in Cățelu, to the south-east of Bucharest.

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Further reading