The Fort l'Écluse is close to the village of Collonges, Ain

Collonges, Ain

Collonges is a commune in the Ain department in eastern France. Just outside the village is Fort l'Écluse.-Population:...

 in Eastern France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. It commands the Rhone

Rhône

Rhone can refer to:* Rhone, one of the major rivers of Europe, running through Switzerland and France* Rhône Glacier, the source of the Rhone River and one of the primary contributors to Lake Geneva in the far eastern end of the canton of Valais in Switzerland...

 valley and is a natural entrance into France from Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 between the Vuache hills

La Vuache

The Vuache is a range of hills in eastern France, close to the border with Switzerland . To the north lies the Jura and to the south the Alps.At their northern end, the hills drop steeply down to the River Rhone...

 and the Jura Mountains

Jura mountains

The Jura Mountains are a small mountain range located north of the Alps, separating the Rhine and Rhone rivers and forming part of the watershed of each...

.

The fort was founded by a Duke of Savoy, and completed by Vauban

Vauban

Sébastien Le Prestre, Seigneur de Vauban and later Marquis de Vauban , commonly referred to as Vauban, was a Marshal of France and the foremost military engineer of his age, famed for his skill in both designing fortifications and breaking through them...

 in the reign of Louis XIV. It was destroyed by the Austrians in 1815, but was rebuilt by the French, and at the same time considerably strengthened and heightened. The high-road intersects a portion of this fortification.

Description and construction

The lower fort (fort inférieure), near the level of the Rhône, was rebuilt between 1816 and 1828. The route national 84 passed through the fort until 1939 when it was relocated to a tunnel through the rock behind the fort, defended by a casemate in the tunnel built as part of the Maginot Line

Maginot Line

The Maginot Line , named after the French Minister of War André Maginot, was a line of concrete fortifications, tank obstacles, artillery casemates, machine gun posts, and other defences, which France constructed along its borders with Germany and Italy, in light of its experience in World War I,...

 fortification program. The casemate was intended to receive 47mm anti-tank guns, but was never equipped. It is linked to the lower fort by a tunnel. The Fort l'Écluse was the largest component of the otherwise weakly fortified Defensive Sector of the Rhône

Defensive Sector of the Rhône

The Defensive Sector of the Rhône was the French military organization that in 1940 controlled the section of the French border with Switzerland and Italy in the area of Geneva. The area was not regarded as a likely point of invasion, owing to the neutrality of Switzerland and the extremely...

.

The upper fort (fort supérieure) is 200 metres (656.2 ft) above the lower fort. Its location allows the upper fort to control the valley, including the railroad viaduct, and to protect the lower fort. It was built between 1934 and 1848.
Today, the lower fort and the subterranean steps and casemates cut into the rock above it, up to and including terraces just below the upper fort, are open during the summer months for visiting, however the upper fort is not currently safe for visitors. Furthermore, a moderately difficult (AD) via ferrata

Via ferrata

A via ferrata or klettersteig is a mountain route which is equipped with fixed cables, stemples, ladders, and bridges. The use of these allows otherwise isolated routes to be joined to create longer routes which are accessible to people with a wide range of climbing abilities...

 exists which takes climbers from the lower fort to the upper fort by traversing the rocky hillside. In addition, there are many hiking trails in the area which allow hikers access to the upper fort.

History

The first fortifications at the site were built by the Romans around 58 BC against incursions by the Helvetii

Helvetii

The Helvetii were a Celtic tribe or tribal confederation occupying most of the Swiss plateau at the time of their contact with the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC...

. The fortifications were not sufficient, leading to direct war between the Romans and Helvetii. The defile became a significant trade route in following years. In 1184 a church and residence belonging to the Saint-Claude abbey was built on the site. During the Middle Ages tolls were collected for passage. In the 13th century a fortified house was built at the site by the Sire de Gex. In 1293 the house was ceded to Amadeus V

Amadeus V, Count of Savoy

Amadeus V , surnamed the Great for his wisdom and success as a ruler, was the Count of Savoy from 1285 to 1323. He established Chambéry as his seat...

, Count of Savoy. In 1601 the Treaty of Lyon

Treaty of Lyon (1601)

The Treaty of Lyon was signed on January 17, 1601 between France, Spain, and Savoy. Based on the terms of the treaty, Henry IV of France relinquished Saluzzo to Savoy. In return, he acquired Bugey, Valromey, Gex, and Bresse. Eventually, the territory of Bresse was attached to the French military...

 placed Gex

Gex, Ain

Gex is a commune in the Ain department in eastern France.It lies from the Swiss border and from Geneva. It is a sous-préfecture of Ain.-History:...

 in the hands of the French crown.

The fort was greatly expanded in the 17th century. The fort played a part in preventing French Protestants from leaving France following the Edict of Nantes

Edict of Nantes

The Edict of Nantes, issued on 13 April 1598, by Henry IV of France, granted the Calvinist Protestants of France substantial rights in a nation still considered essentially Catholic. In the Edict, Henry aimed primarily to promote civil unity...

 in 1685. The fort was burned in 1815 by Austrian forces and reconstructed in following years. The upper fort was built, linked to the lower fort by a tunneled stairway with 1165 steps. By 1860 Savoy

Savoy

Savoy is a region of France. It comprises roughly the territory of the Western Alps situated between Lake Geneva in the north and Monaco and the Mediterranean coast in the south....

 became a permanent part of France and the fort was no longer of importance in controlling the frontier. During World War I the fort served as a military training center. In the 1930s the fort was incorporated into French frontier fortifications as a contingency against a German incursion through Switzerland. However, the Germans ultimately arrived from the west, rather than the east.

The fort held the passage of the Rhône against German forces in June 1940 during the Battle of France

Battle of France

In the Second World War, the Battle of France was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, beginning on 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall Gelb , German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and...

. A single company of the 179th Alpine Fortress Battalion, augmented with an artillery battery and personnel from a pioneers regiment under Lieutenant Mestrallet held the fort with 250 men against Panzergruppe von Kleist, composed of the 3rd and 4th Panzer Divisions and the 13th Motorized Infantry Division

13th Panzer Division (Germany)

The 13th Panzer Division was originally created in 1934 under the cover name Infanterieführer IV; it was unveiled as the 13th Infantry Division in 1935 when the creation of the Wehrmacht was announced...

. For three days from 22 June the French force held the German advance. After the 25 June armistice, the fort's garrison stood its ground until directly ordered by the French command to stand down and to surrender.

Present status

The Fort l'Écluse was purchased by a syndicate of nineteen communities of the Pays de Gex and is operated as a museum. It has been open to the public since 1995.

External links

• Fort l'Écluse
• Fort l'Écluse at Tempête sur les Alpes