Fort de Saint-Julien
| Feste Manteuffel/Fort Saint-Julien | |
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 Feste Manteuffel/Fort Saint-Julien
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| Coordinates | 49°04′58″N 6°07′26″E / 49.0827°N 6.124°E |
| Type | fort of type Séré de Rivières |
| Site history | |
| Built | 1867-1870 |
| Fate | not used |
The Fort de Saint-Julien, renamed Feste Manteuffel in German, is a military installation near Metz. It is part of the first fortified belt forts of Metz and had its baptism of fire in late 1944 in the Battle of Metz.
The first fortified belt consisted of Fort Saint-Privat (1870) Fort de Queuleu (1867), Fort des Bordes (1870), Saint-Julien (1867), Fort Gambetta, Fort Déroulède, Fort Decaen, Fort de Plappeville (1867) and Group Fortifications Of Saint-Quentin (1867); most of them were unfinished or still in the planning stages in 1870, when the Franco-Prussian War broke out. During the period of German control following this war, Metz had a German garrison of 15,000 and 20,000 men at the beginning of this period, and housed more than 25,000 men before the First World War, gradually becoming the most important stronghold of the German Reich.
Fort Saint-Julien is located in the hills above Saint-Julien-lès-Metz and overlooks the city of Metz and the Moselle valley. The fort follows the spirit of the "detached forts" concept developed by Raymond Adolphe Séré de Rivières in France and Hans Alexis von Biehler in Germany. The goal was to form a discontinuous enclosure around Metz of artillery forts spaced a cannon shot apart. Work began in 1867. The fort was not complete in 1870, when war broke out between France and Germany. The defensive system was completed and perfected by German engineers between 1871 and 1891. The fort, pentagonal, is a bastion. Half buried behind a defensive system on a slope, the main casern is designed to withstand artillery fire. The fort is surrounded by a system of dry moats, evoking the fortifications of Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban.
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