The Fort of Mont Verdun is a military work located in the town of Poleymieux-au-Mont d'Or, on the edge of Limonest, about fifteen kilometers north of Lyon, in the Rhone.
Belonging to the "second military belt of Lyon", it was built from 1874, the French staff trying to learn the lessons of the defeat of 1870.
The fort culminates at 630 m altitude overlooking the Lyon area and the Saône valley.
Its architecture follows a pentagonal plan whose center, covered with earth, shelters the barracks. The fort is surrounded by ditches and contains powder magazines and a shell park. In its original version, always, a telegraph had been installed.
Decommissioned in 1889, it was later used by the army as a depot. During the second war, the Germans take advantage of its geographical location to install anti-aircraft batteries.
It is from the 1950s that work is initiated to transform the site into an air base that brings together over the years a National Center for Air Operations (to control French airspace), a Center for Analysis and Simulation for air training preparation (dedicated to training), an Air Intelligence Center and a NATO Command Validation Center.
More than a thousand soldiers are assigned to this base now called "942 Lyon-Mont Verdun".
If hiking is possible in the vicinity of the old fort, part of the original facilities have been preserved, on the heights of the Monts d'Or, the base itself is visited very rarely. All information at +33 4 72 56 70 40.
