Fortifications of Bucharest
The fortifications of Bucharest are a ring of thirty six fortifications (18 forts and 18 batteries) built in late 19th century that surround Bucharest, the capital of Romania.
A report by the War Ministry led the celebrated Belgian military architect Henri Alexis Brialmont (who made several visits to Bucharest, meeting with King Carol I in the process) to draft a plan for the city's fortifications, with construction beginning in 1884. The forts, about 4 km apart, cost 111.5 million gold lei (the equivalent of 614 mil euro of today, of which only 15 million were initially allocated), or three times the annual army budget.[1][2][3]
The forts took over two decades to build, and work was quite complex; the walls are two metres thick in places. All eighteen forts were linked by a road and a railway, which today is DN100, Bucharest's ring road. Eighteen subterranean batteries were placed between the forts, and the fortification ring included some 240 pieces of artillery in all.[1][2][3]
Romania, which had recently won its independence from the Ottoman Empire, undertook this enormous effort in keeping with the prevailing military doctrine of the day, which said the capital city should be defended at all costs. In case of invasion, Bucharest was to be the point of retreat, but also the place where significant military operations would begin, spreading from the Danube to the Carpathians.[1]
At the beginning of the 20th century, chemical and aeronautical advances rendered the forts obsolete soon after their completion. Explosives and aerial bombardment made classical fortifications useless in modern warfare. In 1914, the
Today, the military has abandoned most of the forts. Stray dogs seek shelter in some of them; storage space and mushroom-growing facilities are other reported uses. During the
Notes
- ^ România Liberă (in Romanian). Archived from the originalon March 3, 2016. Retrieved June 26, 2008.
- ^ a b Ciprian Plăiașu (September 11, 2012). "'Cetății' Bucureștiului i se refuză recunoașterea istorică" [Bucharest 'Citadel' Denied Historic Recognition]. Adevărul (in Romanian). Retrieved September 11, 2012.
- ^ a b Vlad Ignat (December 28, 2012). "Fortificațiile din jurul Capitalei" [The Fortifications around the Capital]. Adevărul (in Romanian). Retrieved December 29, 2012.
- ^ Andrei Bergheș (November 2012). "Forturile din București" (PDF). orasul.ro (in Romanian). Retrieved May 23, 2020.
Further reading
- (in Romanian) Cornel I. Scafeș, Ioan I. Scarfeș "Armamentul Cetății Bucureşti", Document 2008/4 (42), pp. 74–79
- Cornel I. Scafeș, Ioan I. Scafeș, București. Fortificațiile din jurul capitalei (1884-1914). Editura Alpha MDN, Buzău, 2008, ISBN 978-973-139-068-0