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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

Fort de la Motte-Giron, originally named Fort Roussin, was built between 1875 and 1876 as part of the fortification program led by General Séré de Rivières, after the French defeat of 1870. Located on the Bel Air plateau west of Dijon, it was part of a belt of eight fortified positions designed to protect the city, then vulnerable after the German occupation. The land, acquired from the widow of a Parisian lawyer, mobilized 1,500 workers, with stones extracted from the local quarries of Premeaux-Prissey and d'Is-sur-Tille. Its design in irregular pentagon, surrounded by ditches and equipped with caponières, aimed to control the Ouche valley, the Burgundy Canal, and the Paris-Lyon railway line.

In 1887 Minister Boulanger tried to rename him fort Roussin in tribute to Admiral Dijonnais Albin Roussin, but this decree was cancelled a few months later. Partially disarmed in 1901, the fort served as a training camp during the First World War, then as a prison for German officers from 1917. Between 1940 and 1944, German forces used as a prison for French civilians, often later deported. After the Liberation, it became a transit centre for German prisoners (1944-1948), then a military site until its decommissioning in 1954.

Purchased by the city of Dijon in 2002, the fort has been partially restored since 2014 and listed as a historic monument in 2006. Its ditches, now grazed by sheep, remind of its past defensive role. The site illustrates the post-1870 military architecture, marked by the use of earth-covered masonry and a strategic position covering the road, rail and river axes of the region. The adjacent battery, to the west, complemented its offensive device, designed to withstand a prolonged seat.

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