The fort Quélern or réduit de Quélern is a

castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

and

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where Prisoner, people are Imprisonment, imprisoned under the authority of the State (polity), state ...

in the commune of

Roscanvel Roscanvel (; ) is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in north-western France. History List of Mayors Population Inhabitants of Roscanvel are called in French ''Roscanvelistes''. See also * Quélern *Communes of the F ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Construction

This fort was built between 1852 and 1854 on modified plans by

Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban Sébastien is a common French given name. It is a French form of the Latin name ''Sebastianus'' meaning "from Sebaste". Sebaste was a common placename in classical Antiquity, derived from the Greek word ''σεβαστος'', or ''sebastos'', mea ...

(1633–1707). It is an enclosure in the form of a square fort, bastioned and surrounded by a dug ditch. The redoubt was built between 1852 and 1854 behind the Quélern lines, at the tightest point of the Roscanvel peninsula, in order to protect the peninsula's works from rear attacks. A fort project had already been issued by Vauban at the end of the 17th century, but it had not been built with the exception of the southern front integrated into the defensive system of the Quélern lines. After the war of 1870, an underground powder magazine type 1874 was built there and since destroyed.

Description

It is a strong rectangle 230 m long by 170 m wide, surrounded by a ditch 7 m wide on average dug into the rock. The scarp is semi-detached on the western, northern and eastern fronts and tied on the southern front.

Prison

In 1871, ''Fort Quélern'' was divided into two parts, the northern part was a closed area for prisoners living in barracks originally intended for soldiers. In the center of these chambers were the administrative rooms, the accommodation of the director, the guards, while the southern part has been preserved for military use. Several hundred

Communards The Communards () were members and supporters of the short-lived 1871 Paris Commune formed in the wake of the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. After the suppression of the Commune by the French Army in May 1871, 43,000 Communards we ...

, including the geographer

Élisée Reclus Jacques Élisée Reclus (; 15 March 18304 July 1905) was a French geographer, writer and anarchist. He produced his 19-volume masterwork, ''La Nouvelle Géographie universelle, la terre et les hommes'' ("Universal Geography"), over a period of ...

(1830 –1905) and the politician

Jean Allemane Jean Allemane (25 August 1843, Sauveterre-de-Comminges, Haute-Garonne – 6 June 1935, Herblay in Seine-et-Oise) was a French socialist politician, veteran of the Paris Commune of 1871, pioneer of syndicalism, leader of the Revolutionary Social ...

(1843-1935), were condemned to serve their sentence in the ''Fort Quélern'', from April 1871 to March 1875. Kabyle insurgents from the events of

Mokrani Revolt The Mokrani Revolt (; ) was the most important local uprising against France in Algeria since the French conquest of Algeria, conquest in 1830. The revolt broke out on March 16, 1871, with the uprising of more than 250 tribes, around a third of ...

in 1871 in

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

were also imprisoned in this fort, including the marabout

Cheikh Boumerdassi Cheikh Mohamed El-Boumerdassi () was one of the principal leaders of the popular Mokrani Revolt uprising of 1871 against the French occupation of Algeria. Early life ''Mohamed ben Hamou ben Abdelkrim El-Boumerdassi'' was a descendant of the ma ...

(1818-1874) and (death 1906). Before the prison closed, 124 Algerian prisoners passed through ''Fort Quélern'' where 6 died there, including ''Mohamed ben Fialah''. The latter rest in a cemetery not far away in the harbor of Brest among the Communards on the

Île des Morts Île des Morts (''Island of the Dead''; ) is a 7-hectare island in the Roscanvel, Bay of Roscanvel, to the south-west of the roadstead of Brest, between the Quélern peninsula and Île Longue. It is 26m above sea level at its highest point. Histo ...

Garrison

Even if it served as a prison, the ''Fort Quélern'' was above all intended to further strengthen the protection of the isthmus of the Roscanvel peninsula.">Gertrude - Réduit, année "1854" dit "Réduit de Quélern" (Roscanvel) - illustration n° 9 : Legende(significatif=false, legende=Projet d'un fort proposé sur la presqu'île des Es...
/ref>

Gallery

File:Amédée Frézier Carte de le presqu'île de Roscanvel.jpg, Location map of ''Fort Quélern'' File:EliseeReclusNadar.jpg,

(1830 –1905) File:Jean Allemane, photo Marmand.jpg,

(1843-1935) File:Bou Mezrag.JPG, (death 1906)

References

External links

2004 Aerial photograph
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fort Quélern Castles in France Barracks in France Military installations of France Prisons in France Penal labour Mokrani Revolt