High place of national memory, the fort of Mont-Valérien takes place at Suresnes, in Hauts-de-Seine, at the top of Mont Valérien. Built in the middle of the 19th century, it is one of sixteen forts built around Paris and which was then used to defend the Capital from external attacks.
Culminating at more than 160 meters, it is in the shape of an irregular pentagon and could accommodate, in its twenty hectares, more than 2000 men. Today occupied by the Strategic Operations Staff, the Joint Directorate of Infrastructure Networks and Information Systems of Île-de-France and the 8th Signal Regiment, the site was the scene, during World War II, the execution of more than a thousand resistance fighters and hostages by German troops. A memorial to fighting France was erected there in 1960 by General de Gaulle, near the southern perimeter wall, in order to honor the memory of these men who gave their lives for their country.
Several original elements remain inside the enclosure, such as a crypt converted into a chapel, a building from the First Empire which houses the museum of the regiment of transmissions, a chapel of the first half of the nineteenth century or the castle of Forbin-Janson. Built at the beginning of the 19th century, it now houses the officers' mess. On site, visitors can also discover the military pigeon fancier or the ruins of the old cemetery of Mont-Valérien.
