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Key figures

Origin and history

The Fortress of Mont-Valérien is a pentagonal military building built between 1840 and 1846 on a hill top 161 meters, located in Suresnes (Hautes-de-Seine), two kilometres west of Paris. It is one of the sixteen forts erected around the capital under the leadership of Adolphe Thiers, within the framework of the Fortifications Act of 1841. The site, once occupied by hermits and a religious calvary from the Lower Middle Ages, became a strategic place after the destruction of religious buildings under the July Monarchy.

During the Franco-German war of 1870, the fortress played a key role: its cannons, including the famous La Valérie (24 tons, 100 kg pellets), bombed German positions. Occupied by the Prussians in 1871, it was then used by the Versaillais to suppress the Paris Commune. In 1882, an explosion in his cartridge factory killed 17 people, mostly workers. Starting in 1884, the site hosted the Military Telegraph School, the forerunner of the 8th Signal Regiment.

During the Second World War, the fortress became a place of mass execution: more than 1,000 resistors and hostages, including Gabriel Péri, Missak Manouchian and members of the network of the Museum of Man, were shot there by the Germans between 1941 and 1944. Their bodies, scattered in the Parisian cemeteries, are commemorated by the memorial of France combatant, inaugurated by General de Gaulle in 1960. The chapel of the castle of Forbin-Janson, where the convicts were waiting for their execution, retains their graffiti.

Today, Mount Valérie is home to the Joint Directorate of Infrastructure Networks (DIRISI/IDF/8e RT), a museum of transmissions, and a memorial circuit tracing the course of the shootings. The site, still military, also hosts official ceremonies, such as the tribute to Missak Manouchian in 2024 before his entry into the Pantheon. A monument by Pascal Convert, inaugurated in 2003, lists the 1,008 identified names of the victims.

Architecturally, the fortress combines preserved historical elements: the crypt (17th or 19th century), the building of 1812 (museum), the castle of Forbin-Janson (mess of officers), and a disused chapel. The national military dovecote and contemporary sculptures (such as Robert Couturier's Le Vent) are also installed. The ASGARD supercomputer, dedicated to the artificial intelligence of Defense, was introduced in 2025.

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