Fort Montluc, also known as Fort de Villeurbanne, is a

fort A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

located in the

3rd arrondissement of Lyon The 3rd arrondissement of Lyon is one of the nine arrondissements of the City of Lyon. Demography * 2006: 88,755 inhabitants * 2007: 89,000 inhabitants It is the most populous arrondissement of Lyon and the second most densely populated after th ...

. The fort was built in 1831 as part of the

Ceintures de Lyon The ceintures de Lyon ('Belts of Lyon') were a series of fortifications built between 1830 and 1890 around the city of Lyon, France, to protect the city from foreign invasion. The belts comprised two defensive barriers that included forts, l ...

, which were a series of fortifications surrounding

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of ...

. It is currently used as a metropolitan police station.

History

The fort at the beginning of the 20th century Fort Montluc was built between 1831 and 1835 and was part of a system of fortifications to protect Lyon from possible enemy attack. The

trapezoidal A quadrilateral with at least one pair of parallel sides is called a trapezoid () in American and Canadian English. In British and other forms of English, it is called a trapezium (). A trapezoid is necessarily a convex quadrilateral in Eucli ...

shape and two outward-facing bastions were designed to protect the suburb of . It was surrounded by water similar to the and was accessible by a wooden bridge. The interior included a large two-storey

cavalier The term Cavalier () was first used by Roundheads as a term of abuse for the wealthier royalist supporters of King Charles I and his son Charles II of England during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration (1642 – ). It ...

which, could hold 600 soldiers. The fort later served as a garrison.

Present day

At the end of the 19th century, the

glacis A glacis (; ) in military engineering is an artificial slope as part of a medieval castle or in early modern fortresses. They may be constructed of earth as a temporary structure or of stone in more permanent structure. More generally, a glaci ...

surrounding the fort were occupied by French military, and have since been replaced by a garden square. The fort was owned by the

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

from 1969 to 2007, after which it has been used as a metropolitan police station.

References

External links

Lyon Military Museum article about the fort
{{3rd arrondissement of Lyon 1830s establishments in France 3rd arrondissement of Lyon

Montluc Monluc, or Montluc, the name of a French family. It stemmed from the house of Lasseran-Mansencomme, which possessed the estate of Monluc in Agenais, and whose last heiress, Gersende, married a cadet from the House of Montesquiou. All its male memb ...

History

Present day

See also

References

External links