Fort de Leveau: A Séré de Rivières Fortress at Feignies
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.7
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- France
- Primary era
- Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Modern
- Civilizations
- French
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Fort
On this page11 sections
History
Fort de Leveau is a French fortress in Feignies, near Maubeuge, built between 1882 and 1884 as part of the Séré de Rivières system. This network of forts and defensive works was created after France’s defeat and partial occupation by Prussian forces in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871. The fort formed part of the defensive ring around Maubeuge and was intended to protect the town from artillery bombardment.
Construction and the Maubeuge defenses
Fort de Leveau was one of six forts built around Maubeuge, alongside Boussois, Les Sarts, Hautmont, Cerfontaine, and Bourdiau. Its garrison comprised 97 men. The position lay about 3,250 metres northwest of the Maubeuge fortress and overlooked the railway leading to Mons, giving it a place within the wider defense of the frontier.
In 1887, War Minister Georges Boulanger ordered French forts, batteries, and barracks to receive the names of former military leaders. Fort de Leveau was briefly renamed Fort Schouller after General Jean-Baptiste-Nicolas Schouller, who had served as governor of Maubeuge in 1814. Boulanger’s successor, Théophile Ferron, revoked the order on 13 October 1887. The official name therefore returned to Fort de Leveau, although Schouller’s name remained carved on the entrance pediment.
The First World War
During the Siege of Maubeuge, in the opening phase of the First World War, German forces began surrounding the fortress on 29 August 1914. On 7 September, Fort de Leveau came under intense bombardment. Twenty-five 42-centimetre projectiles and additional 30.5-centimetre rounds struck the position, and one shell hit the barracks, killing up to 120 men. French troops evacuated the fort at 2:00 p.m. that day, shortly before the general surrender of the Maubeuge fortress.
After taking the position, German forces destroyed the caponiers, fortified structures projecting into the ditch to fire along it, as well as the unfinished 75 mm gun turret and other parts of the fort. In 1998, excavation at the site recovered the remains of nine soldiers killed during the 1914 siege. They were reinterred in Assevent Cemetery.
Second World War and preservation
During the 1930s, Fort de Leveau became part of the limited defensive works added around Maubeuge under the extension of the Maginot Line and the “New Fronts” program. The Maginot Line was France’s interwar system of fortified positions along its eastern frontiers. These newer works were attacked and captured during the opening stages of the Second World War. The Leveau fortifications were assaulted on 18 May 1940 and subdued that afternoon, with one defender killed. Resistance and German forces also fought at the fort in 1944.
The town of Feignies acquired the site in 1993 and remains its owner. The Association for the Preservation of Fort Leveau, founded that year, has administered the museum and worked with the municipality on restoration. This work aims to recover the fort’s original appearance while retaining evidence of its wartime history.
Remains
Fort de Leveau covers approximately 8.25 hectares. Built from masonry and concrete, it has the low profile typical of a Séré de Rivières fort. A low wall was surrounded by a defensive ditch, while the concreted roof of the barracks supported a raised artillery platform known as a cavalier.
Fort layout and armament
Ditch and defensive works
The ditch was crossed by a drawbridge, which no longer survives. Caponiers defended the ditch from projecting positions, but these structures were destroyed after the German occupation in 1914. Their remains form part of the evidence of the fort’s alteration during the First World War.
Cavalier and gun positions
Four 120 mm guns were installed on the cavalier in 1893. Additional weapons, including 90 mm guns, were placed in casemates, fortified chambers designed to house artillery or other weapons. Together, the artillery platform and protected gun positions formed the principal armament of the late nineteenth-century fortress.
Unfinished 75 mm turret
A project undertaken in 1914 provided for a turret carrying two 75 mm guns. The turret was still unfinished when the First World War began, so it had neither weapons nor equipment. German forces later destroyed part of the structure.
Maginot-related additions
The 1930s modifications added an observation post, a casemate, and a blockhouse, a fortified building or position. The casemate contained a 25 mm anti-tank gun, a machine-gun embrasure, and an automatic-rifle embrasure. An embrasure is an opening through which a weapon fires. These additions belonged to the limited Maubeuge defenses associated with the “New Fronts” program rather than to the principal Maginot complexes on France’s eastern frontier.
Inscription and adapted spaces
The entrance pediment still bears the inscription “Fort Schouller,” preserving the brief official name assigned in 1887. Part of the fort, including a turret shaft and a tunnel, has been adapted as a hibernation site for bats. Five types use these spaces: Daubenton’s bat, the whiskered bat, Natterer’s bat, the pipistrelle, and the red-brown long-eared bat.
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