Fort de Plappeville: A Séré de Rivières Fortification at Metz
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.4
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- France
- Primary era
- Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Modern
- Civilizations
- French, German
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Fort
On this page9 sections
History
Fort de Plappeville is a French military fortification in France, northwest of Metz, built between 1867 and 1870 as part of the first fortified ring of Metz. Constructed during the Second Empire under Napoleon III, it was an early example of the detached-fort system developed by the French engineer and general Raymond Adolphe Séré de Rivières. Its purpose was to support the defense of Metz with artillery positioned in separate forts rather than within one continuous wall.
Construction and the Franco-Prussian War
Work began in 1867 and continued until 1870. When the Franco-Prussian War began, the fort remained incomplete, although its barracks, defensive ditch walls, counterscarps, parapets, and sloping earthworks were substantially finished. Commandant Duchêne took command on 9 August 1870. On 2 September, Marshal Bazaine sent 1,000 earthworkers to reinforce the garrison of 800 men. Their labor allowed additional earth to be placed over the glacis and the powder magazines.
Fort de Plappeville was complete by the end of the siege of Metz on 27 October 1870. German troops then occupied it, and the Treaty of Frankfurt transferred it to the German imperial government. On 22 November, an accidental explosion in the powder stores damaged the barracks and killed or wounded French prisoners of war. The barracks were later rebuilt.
German occupation and modernization
During the German annexation of Alsace-Lorraine, the fort was renamed Feste Alvensleben in 1872 after the Prussian-German general Constantin von Alvensleben, who had commanded the III Army Corps during the Franco-Prussian War. German engineers modernized and partly rebuilt the fort between 1871 and 1891, followed by further work in 1897 and 1898. During this period it served as a training camp for Prussian officers.
From 1914 to 1918, the fort functioned as a relay and rest station for German troops moving toward the front, particularly the Verdun sector. Its military equipment was upgraded during the First World War. The French Army reoccupied the site in November 1918.
Second World War and the Battle of Metz
On 7 September 1940, Heinrich Himmler reviewed troops of the 1st SS Division, Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, on the fort’s parade ground. The ceremony included the presentation of a new divisional standard, arranged during Himmler’s visit to Metz at the request of Sepp Dietrich. The fort later served as a Wehrmacht disciplinary camp.
At the beginning of September 1944, German forces reorganized the fort’s defenses and incorporated it into the defensive system around Metz. On 2 September, Adolf Hitler declared Metz a “fortress of the Reich,” an order requiring the city’s defenses to be held to the last. From 3 September, Generalleutnant Krause, commander of the Metz fortress, established his combat headquarters in the barracks at Fort de Plappeville.
The fort stood west of Metz and faced the American attack. Fort von Manstein supported it to the south, while Fort Saint-Quentin exchanged mutual support with Fort de Plappeville under Colonel Vogel’s artillery command. Together, these positions helped block the American advance west of Metz. American attacks began on 7 September 1944 but were suspended after the attackers encountered stronger fortifications than expected. German reserve troops, later incorporated into the 462nd Volks-Grenadier Division, replaced elite units in the sector as the forts endured artillery fire and frequent bombing.
On 9 November, a major American air operation dropped 3,753 tons of bombs on fortified works and strategic positions in the area. Bombing aimed at seven Metz forts caused mainly collateral damage because many aircraft released their bombs without visually identifying their targets. The buried construction of Fort de Plappeville helped it withstand American artillery, including attacks using incendiary weapons, relatively effectively.
The final American offensive began on 14 November. German units withdrew toward Metz while leaving detachments in the forts. On 18 November, the 378th Infantry Regiment attacked Fort de Plappeville and Fort Saint-Quentin. The defenders resisted from casemate to casemate before withdrawing into the fort’s enclosed defenses under artillery fire. A further frontal attack on 19 November failed, but the fort was completely encircled. The 379th Infantry Regiment replaced the 378th the following day. American troops captured the two advanced batteries between the forts on 21 November, while the principal fortifications continued to resist.
Metz was liberated on 22 November 1944, but Fort de Plappeville and Fort Saint-Quentin held out for about two more weeks. Colonel Vogel requested a truce to evacuate wounded soldiers but refused to surrender. After Fort Saint-Quentin capitulated on 6 December, Fort de Plappeville, still occupied by approximately 200 men, surrendered to the U.S. 5th Infantry Division on 7 December. The German garrison formed up in the courtyard and presented arms before surrendering to the commander of the 2nd Battalion, 11th Infantry Regiment, in honor of its dead comrades.
Postwar use and abandonment
After the Second World War, the fort was transferred to the French Air Force in 1949. In 1953 and 1954, it became a military instruction center for recruits serving at Metz-Frescaty Air Base 128. The site was abandoned in the mid-1990s, after which looting, vandalism, and general deterioration increased. A long-term restoration project has since been undertaken to emphasize the fort’s architectural and natural heritage, while unexploded-ordnance clearance continues to affect the military site.
Remains
Fort de Plappeville is an early bastioned fort of the Séré de Rivières system, a French network of detached forts and batteries developed in the late nineteenth century to protect frontiers and major strongholds. The complex covers approximately 46 hectares and contains 43 buildings, including barracks, artillery batteries, and powder magazines. Its built area measures about 14,700 square metres. Brick, stone, and concrete form the principal construction materials. Earth covers parts of the fort on the plateau side, while the position overlooks the Moselle valley to the southeast.
Defensive layout and barracks
Dry ditches cut into the limestone plateau surround the fort. Their inner sides, called escarps, and outer sides, called counterscarps, worked with the parapets and glacis to protect the fort at close range. The glacis is a sloping earthwork that exposes attackers to fire while shielding the main structures. Beneath the artillery platform of the cavalier, a raised gun platform within the fort, lie the barracks. Their arrangement differs from the barracks at Fort Saint-Quentin and Fort de Queuleu. Rebuilt after the powder explosion of 22 November 1870, the accommodation was designed for approximately 1,600 to 1,617 men.
Artillery and advanced batteries
The planned stores included 55,200 artillery charges, 1,347,000 cartridges, and 185,074 kilograms of powder for cannon and rifle use. The artillery establishment was listed as 78 pieces, while 75 guns were in position at the end of the 1870 siege. These guns were reportedly capable of firing 300 rounds each. Advanced defensive works on the Plappeville plateau supplemented the principal fort. Two larger armored batteries near the Lessy pass each contained four rotating armored turrets armed with 150-millimetre guns. The batteries were in place by 1897, and armored observation posts had been installed in 1885.
Battlefield fabric and surviving spaces
The fort’s underground and earth-covered construction was designed to resist artillery fire at a distance. During the Battle of Metz, the buried defenses absorbed attacks that included incendiary weapons, allowing the garrison to continue resisting after surrounding positions had been captured. The defenders used the casemates and enclosed areas as successive positions under artillery fire. The parade ground retains its association with the 1940 standard-presentation ceremony, while the courtyard is linked to the German garrison’s final formation before surrender in December 1944.
Years of abandonment, looting, and vandalism have left the fort largely cleared and neglected, with physical deterioration affecting its buildings and defensive works. The continuing restoration effort treats the surviving structures and the surrounding natural setting as parts of the site’s heritage.
