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 ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

, the capital of

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

. A report by the War Ministry led the celebrated Belgian military architect Henri Alexis Brialmont (who made several visits to Bucharest, meeting with

King King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

Carol I Carol I or Charles I of Romania (born Karl Eitel Friedrich Zephyrinus Ludwig von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen; 20 April 1839 – ), was the monarch of Romania from 1866 to his death in 1914, ruling as Prince (''Domnitor'') from 1866 to 1881, and as ...

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 A ring road (also known as circular road, beltline, beltway, circumferential (high)way, loop or orbital) is a road or a series of connected roads encircling a town, city or country. The most common purpose of a ring road is to assist in reducin ...

. 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 (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

, 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 ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

to the

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

. 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, in which the

German Army The German Army (, 'army') is the land component of the armed forces of Federal Republic of Germany, Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German together with the German Navy, ''Marine'' (G ...

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 Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp (formerly Fried. Krupp AG and Friedrich Krupp GmbH), trade name, trading as Krupp, was the largest company in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century as well as Germany's premier weapons manufacturer dur ...

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. 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 Chiajna () is a commune in the south-west of Ilfov County, Muntenia, Romania, immediately west of the capital, Bucharest. It is composed of three villages: Chiajna, Dudu, and Roșu. The mayor of Chiajna is currently Mircea Minea ( Social Democra ...

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