The Fort du Portalet is a fort in the Aspe Valley in Bearn, French

Pyrenees The Pyrenees are a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. They extend nearly from their union with the Cantabrian Mountains to Cap de Creus on the Mediterranean coast, reaching a maximum elevation of at the peak of Aneto. ...

, built from 1842 to 1870. The fort, built by order of

Louis Philippe I Louis Philippe I (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850), nicknamed the Citizen King, was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, the penultimate monarch of France, and the last French monarch to bear the title "King". He abdicated from his throne ...

, guards the border of the Pyrenees and protects access to the Col du Somport. Fort du Portalet is located on a cliff face underneath the Chemin de la Mâture (literally "The Mast Road") and overlooks the torrential river Gave d'Aspe. Begun in 1842 and finished in 1870, the fort replaced an earlier structure further north. Capable of accommodating 400 men, the fort served as depot and barracks for the 18th Regiment of Infantry between 1871 and 1925. It then ceased to be used as a full-time military facility. During World War II, the

Vichy regime Vichy France (; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was a French rump state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II, established as a result of the French capitulation after the defeat against ...

arrested and interned Léon Blum,

Édouard Daladier Édouard Daladier (; 18 June 1884 – 10 October 1970) was a French Radical Party (France), Radical-Socialist (centre-left) politician, who was the Prime Minister of France in 1933, 1934 and again from 1938 to 1940. he signed the Munich Agreeme ...

, Paul Reynaud, Georges Mandel and

Maurice Gamelin Maurice Gustave Gamelin (; 20 September 1872 – 18 April 1958) was a French general. He is remembered for his disastrous command (until 17 May 1940) of the French military during the Battle of France in World War II and his steadfast defence of ...

as political prisoners at the fort. After the Riom Trials, Reynaud was transferred to German custody and held in Germany. Mandel was taken to Paris, where he was executed in 1944 by the

Milice The (French Militia), generally called (; ), was a political paramilitary organization created on 30 January 1943 by the Vichy France, Vichy régime (with Nazi Germany, German aid) to help fight against the French Resistance during World War ...

in retaliation for the assassination earlier that year of Philippe Henriot, a Vichy official, by the Resistance. After the war,

Philippe Pétain Henri Philippe Bénoni Omer Joseph Pétain (; 24 April 1856 – 23 July 1951), better known as Marshal Pétain (, ), was a French marshal who commanded the French Army in World War I and later became the head of the Collaboration with Nazi Ger ...

, the head of the Vichy government, was imprisoned in the fort from 15 August to 16 November 1945.Williams, 2005, pp. 512-3 After the government abandoned the fort, it was bought by the local authorities in 1999. It is currently under restoration.

References

External links

"Fort du Portalet: Story and photo galleryTranslated via Google
2006

{{Coord, 42.886453, -0.562727, source:frwiki_region:FR_type:landmark, format=dms, display=title Portalet Philippe Pétain