Fort de la Crèche

The Fort of the Crèche is a coastal battery of type Séré de Rivières whose construction was completed in 1879. It is near Wimereux, in the Pas-de-Calais on the tip of Pointe de la Crèche. It is built on the remains of a Napoleonic defense system consisting of Fort Terlincthun, and a sea fort, opposite the tip, of which only the foundations remain.The Napoleonic camp of BoulogneThe Fort de Terlincthun was a simple mound of earth surrounded by a stone wall built by Napoleon I between 1806 and 1808. There is nothing of it left today.Before the point of la Crèche (Wimereux, Pas-de-Calais), one can see the foundations of the offshore fort, identical to Heurt fort, built in 1803.Coast BatteryIn 1879 there was completed, on the site of la Crèche a fort of type Séré de Rivières. It was the northern end of a system of four forts : The battery of Cape Alprech (Le Portel) The battery of Mount Couppes (Le Portel) The battery (Boulogne-sur-Mer).They are all built on the same pattern (a barracks, a powder magazine, 2 or 3 shelters, 3-6 platforms for cannon, a well) and are surrounded by a stone wall and a dry moat. Together they protect the port of Boulogne.During the World War I the fort defended the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer which played a strategic role in resupply and in evacuation of the wounded.