Adventure through time> Fortifications of the Alps
Day 1: Fort de Tournoux
alt_route Stage 1 / Caurres Battery of Fort de Tournoux
In 1837, General Haxo had a fort built in Tournoux on a rocky ridge between 1 and 300 m to lock in the valley of the Ubaye.
In order to save the cost of transport, the sand comes from Ubaye, the timber from the neighboring forests, the clay from the great redoubt, the slate from the quarries opened on site, the cut stone from Serennes (marble ) or Saint-Ours.
To learn more, discover the Water, Earth, Air course and Barcelonnette game.
The work, begun in 1843, animated the valley with carts, teams and workers, but also with mine explosions and the noise of steel on the rock for more than 20 years, until 1865.
Contact Bernard Sarrailh
17 Crystal Head
04400 Barcelona
bernard.sarrailh@orange.fr
+04 (92)81 49 59 XNUMX XNUMX
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Defensive devices of the Ubaye
At the end of the 17th century, Louis XIV established the borders of France and entrusted Vauban with the defense system. The latter develops the main principles of “bastion” architecture with an enclosure that surrounds the city. He launched the construction of the Place de Montdauphin (control of the outlet of the Col de Vars), and improved several sites (Saint-Vincent-les-forts, Seyne-les-Alpes, Colmars-les-Alpes and Entrevaux).
Two centuries after Vauban, the power of the new cannons marked the end of the bastioned fortification. In Ubaye, large defensive units were then built.
In 1919 - 1939, the Minister of War Maginot resumed work on an immense network of forts, underground blocks and equipped with very powerful cannons for the defense of French troops all along the borders with Germany and Italy.