Fort de Vancia

The Fort de Vancia is a former military installation built between 1872 and 1878 in the municipalities of Sathonay-Village and Rillieux-la-Pape, north of Lyon. It is part of the second belt Lyon and more generally the system Sere de Rivieres.

This belt of forts included the forts of Bron, Vancia itself, Feyzin and Mont Verdun.

This pentagonal fort covers about 18 hectares. Located on the plateau and peak Vancia on Dombes to 332 meters, it is disposed between the height of Mont Verdun and Fort Meyzieu. It has been built primarily for the purpose of resisting German and Italian attack from Bourg-en-Bresse, but also in order to confine a potential revolt of the city of Lyon.

The fort consists of seven batteries of 50 guns and covered by three batteries: Sermenaz, Neyron and Sathonay.

Its organization is very similar plans of the forts of Bron and Feyzin, it is not constructed of concrete but in stone, surrounded by a dry ditch along a kilometer in a building concrete will be added to the barracks of the rider in 1895 . The fort was built on the ground and covered by a result of soil from outside.

The fort had a capacity of 800 soldiers divided into two two-story barracks and is 16,000 m², with fifty pieces, two coal-fired ovens, shops and arsenals, two stables, four kitchens, a bakery, four wells, a water tank, a laundry, an infirmary, a forge, and fifty guns. It cost at the time of building 3 million gold francs.

The barracks are composed, on the ground floor of a barn or a shop, with the garrison of the rooms upstairs. Each room has an area of 120 square meters, and housed 25 men arranged in two bunk beds and an officer in a single bed. Meals were served in your room, the bread was suspended in each to protect from rats. Grooves within each window can barricade in case of danger. The path along the barracks is called the street walls and was crossed by a rail allowing, through horse-drawn wagons, to supply the guns quickly.

Two magazines of 70t and 68T provide ammunition to eleven shooting platforms which are placed at the top of the structure on the ridge of high fire and bunkers indirect fire mortar type. Because of the ever-present risk of explosion of the powder by spark, access and layout of magazines included some points:

Skylights can move inside; movements in the magazine were made in wooden shoes; bins allow sand to absorb moisture.

Text adapted from “Fort de Vancia” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Fort de Vancia ranks #6,415 of 7,787 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #483 of the 516 mapped in France. Founded 1872, it is older than 6% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 571 atlas entries founded in the 19th century. 18 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Lyon, 10 km away. See how France compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗