Fort Douaumont

Fort Douaumont is the largest of the ring of forts around Verdun. It was occupied by the Germans throughout most of the battle, and suffered continual shelling. This mammoth site offers visitors an authentic immersion in a location where thousands of soldiers lived and fought. Fort Douaumont is synonymous with the Battle of Verdun.

In 1873, General Séré de Rivières made the decision to build a fort on a hill 500 metres south-east of Douaumont village. The hill was 388 metres high and overlooked the Hauts de Meuse Plateau and the Woëvre Plain. Building began in 1884 as part of the second defensive belt of the Verdun fortifications. Covering almost nine hectares, it was the largest of the forts defending Verdun. But no sooner had it been finished than it was rendered obsolete by the torpedo shell crisis. In 1888, work began to cover the two-floor barracks with a special concrete shell. It was 2.5m thick on the western side and 1.5m thick on the eastern side. Between 1903 and 1913, the fort’s gun turrets were added: first of all two machine-gun turrets, then the 155mm turret and lastly the 75mm turret.The firing angle of the 155mm turret stretches from Côte-du-Poivre in the west to the foot of the Meuse hills in the south-east. During the same period, the Bourges bunker and the cupolas were added on the superstructure of the fort. The building could originally house 800 men. The garrison was reduced to upwards of 500 after the modernisations. Its location and its weaponry made Douaumont one of the most important forts in the ring that surrounded Verdun. In total, including the various modernisations, it cost more than 6 million gold francs.