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Origin and history

Beauregard Fort is part of the Séré de Rivières system, a network of fortifications built after the French defeat of 1870-1871 to secure borders. Built between 1877 and 1881 near Dijon, it is part of a belt of nine forts and reduced surrounding the city, with works like the Motte-Giron or Hauteville. Its location takes over that of an old fortification visible on maps of the nineteenth century, near a farm attested from the seventeenth century. Briefly appointed fort Fauconnet in 1887 in tribute to Colonel Adrien Fauconnet, hero of the defence of Dijon in 1870, he lost this name after the Boulanger ministry.

During World War I (1914-1918), the fort remained unused, but was reactivated under the occupation (1940-1944) as an air defence post for Longvic Air Base. Four cannon tanks of 75 DCA are then installed. Disused in 1984, it was invaded by vegetation before being bought by the commune of Fenay in 2003, which undertook restoration work. Ranked a historic monument in 2006, it opens exceptionally during Heritage Days. In December 2024, the fort was sold to an individual for 245,000 euros.

Architecturally, the fort follows the 1874 model: a rectangular plan with re-entry angles, protected by a ditch of six meters passable via a drawbridge "à la Poncelet", rare system in Burgundy. This innovative mechanism, invented by General Jean-Victor Poncelet in 1820, replaces medieval drawbridges with an articulated counterweight system. The fort houses two powder shops (30-40 tons) and a double caponière to defend the south and west ditches. A metal watch tower "model 1947" offers today a panoramic view of the surroundings.

The site also attracts international attention: in 2010, the Japanese channel NHK shot scenes of a television film about the Russian-Japanese war, seduced by its state of conservation. Despite its recent sale, the fort remains a major testimony of French military history and defence engineering of the 19th century.

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