Fort Quélern

{{About|Quélern||Quélern (disambiguation)}} {{use dmy dates |date=March 2024}} {{Infobox military installation | name = Fort Quélern | ensign = | ensign_size = | native_name = | partof =  | location = Roscanvel | nearest_town =  | country = France | image = 037 Carte de la presqu'île de Quelern Beautemps-Beaupré 1817.JPG | alt = | caption = Location map of ''Fort Quélern'' | image2 =  | alt2 = | caption2 = | type = Castle, Prison, Barracks | coordinates = {{coord|48.2987455|N|4.5641553|W|type:city(100)_region:FR|display=inline,title}} | gridref = | image_map = | image_mapsize = | image_map_alt = | image_map_caption = | pushpin_map = | pushpin_mapsize = | pushpin_map_alt = | pushpin_map_caption = | pushpin_relief = | pushpin_image = | pushpin_label = | pushpin_label_position = | pushpin_mark = | pushpin_marksize = | ownership = Ministry of Armed Forces in France | operator = Direction générale de la Sécurité extérieure | controlledby = Action Division | open_to_public =  | site_other_label =  | site_other =  | site_area =  | code =  | built = {{Start date|1852}} | used = {{End date|1854}} | builder = | materials = | height =  | length =  | fate =  | condition = | battles = | events = | current_commander =  | past_commanders =  | garrison =  | occupants = Communards, Mokrani Revolt | designations = | website = | footnotes =  }} The '''fort Quélern''' or '''réduit de Quélern''' is a castle and prison in the commune of Roscanvel in France.<ref>[http://inventaire-patrimoine.region-bretagne.fr/gertrude-diffusion/dossier/reduit-annee-1854-dit-reduit-de-quelern-roscanvel/c30734f6-a1d6-4d6e-8ead-6bafa968c956 Réduit, année "1854" dit "Réduit de Quélern" (Roscanvel) - Inventaire Général du Patrimoine Culturel]</ref>

==Construction== This fort was built between 1852 and 1854 on modified plans by Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban (1633–1707).<ref>[http://patrimoine.region-bretagne.fr/gertrude-diffusion/dossier/reduit-de-quelern-roscanvel/50141e29-bfc5-4a40-8cff-fe7e36d8eb60 Réduit de Quélern (Roscanvel) - Inventaire Général du Patrimoine Culturel]</ref>

It is an enclosure in the form of a square fort, bastioned and surrounded by a dug ditch.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=xOg6AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA369 Dictionnaire géographique universel, contenant la description de tous les ... - Google Livres]</ref>

The redoubt was built between 1852 and 1854 behind the Quélern lines, at the tightest point of the Roscanvel peninsula, in order to protect the peninsula's works from rear attacks.<ref>[http://www.sites-vauban.org/Roscanvel Roscanvel - Réseau des sites majeurs Vauban]</ref>

A fort project had already been issued by Vauban at the end of the 17th century, but it had not been built with the exception of the southern front integrated into the defensive system of the Quélern lines.

After the war of 1870, an underground powder magazine type 1874 was built there and since destroyed.<ref>[http://www.bretania.bzh/EXPLOITATION/Bretania/doc/GERTRUDE/IA29004233 Bretania, le portail des cultures de Bretagne - Ermes 2.0]{{Dead link|date=December 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }}</ref>

==Description== It is a strong rectangle 230 m long by 170 m wide, surrounded by a ditch 7 m wide on average dug into the rock.<ref>[http://inventaire-patrimoine.region-bretagne.fr/gertrude-diffusion/dossier/reduit-annee-1854-dit-reduit-de-quelern-roscanvel/c30734f6-a1d6-4d6e-8ead-6bafa968c956/illustration/16 Gertrude - Réduit, année "1854" dit "Réduit de Quélern" (Roscanvel) - illustration n° 17 : Legende(significatif=true, legende=Vue aérienne du réduit de Quélern en 1971, sujets...]</ref>

The scarp is semi-detached on the western, northern and eastern fronts and tied on the southern front.<ref>[http://patrimoine.bzh/gertrude-diffusion/illustration/ivr5319692900161x/4afcd5f4-c730-4885-9793-34d8452dd76c Roscanvel, fort de Quélern, caserne casematée, 1854. (Casernes à l'épreuve et casernes défensives, 1800-1870) - Inventaire Général du Patrimoine Culturel]</ref>

==Prison== {{Main|Communards}} {{See also|Mokrani Revolt}} In 1871, ''Fort Quélern'' was divided into two parts, the northern part was a closed area for prisoners living in barracks originally intended for soldiers.<ref>[https://www.presqu-ile-de-crozon.com/guerre/fort-de-quelern-001.php Le fort - réduit - de Quélern qui n'en finissait pas]</ref>

In the center of these chambers were the administrative rooms, the accommodation of the director, the guards, while the southern part has been preserved for military use.

Several hundred Communards, including the geographer Élisée Reclus (1830 –1905) and the politician Jean Allemane (1843-1935), were condemned to serve their sentence in the ''Fort Quélern'', from April 1871 to March 1875.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=66e9DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA0 Oubliés de l'Histoire. Les Limousins de la Commune de Paris (1871): Préface ... - Stéphane Trayaud - Google Livres]</ref>

Kabyle insurgents from the events of Mokrani Revolt in 1871 in Algeria were also imprisoned in this fort, including the marabout Cheikh Boumerdassi (1818-1874) and {{illm|Boumezrag Mokrani|ar|بومزراق المقراني}} (death 1906).<ref>[https://www.presqu-ile-de-crozon.com/roscanvel/kabyle-001.php Chefs Kabyles internés au fort de Quélern en Roscanvel]</ref>

Before the prison closed, 124 Algerian prisoners passed through ''Fort Quélern'' where 6 died there, including ''Mohamed ben Fialah''.<ref>[http://www.notrepresquile.com/recits/autres/fort-quelern-roscanvel.php Les prisonniers du fort de Quélern, en Roscanvel]</ref>

The latter rest in a cemetery not far away in the harbor of Brest among the Communards on the Île des Morts.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ouest-france.fr/bretagne/en-1874-des-chefs-kabyles-etaient-detenus-quelern-3624099 |title=En 1874, des chefs Kabyles étaient détenus à Quélern |website=Ouest France |language=fr |date=14 August 2015 |access-date= 2 March 2024 |first=Anaëlle |last=Berre}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.utlquimper.com/VisuFicheCf.php?IDb=546 |title=Université du Temps Libre -conférence : L'histoire des détenus politiques kabyles du fort de Quelern de 1871 à et leur avenir |access-date=30 January 2021 |archive-date=4 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210204132959/https://www.utlquimper.com/VisuFicheCf.php?IDb=546 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Garrison== Even if it served as a prison, the ''Fort Quélern'' was above all intended to further strengthen the protection of the isthmus of the Roscanvel peninsula.<ref>[http://patrimoine.bzh/gertrude-diffusion/dossier/reduit-annee-1854-dit-reduit-de-quelern-roscanvel/c30734f6-a1d6-4d6e-8ead-6bafa968c956/illustration/8 Gertrude - Réduit, année "1854" dit "Réduit de Quélern" (Roscanvel) - illustration n° 9 : Legende(significatif=false, legende=Projet d'un fort proposé sur la presqu'île des Es...]</ref>

==Gallery== <gallery class="center" widths="200px" heights="160px"> File:Amédée Frézier Carte de le presqu'île de Roscanvel.jpg|Location map of ''Fort Quélern'' File:EliseeReclusNadar.jpg|Élisée Reclus (1830 –1905) File:Jean Allemane, photo Marmand.jpg|Jean Allemane (1843-1935) File:Bou Mezrag.JPG|{{illm|Boumezrag Mokrani|ar|بومزراق المقراني}} (death 1906) </gallery>

==See also== * Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban * Mokrani Revolt * Cheikh Boumerdassi * {{illm|Boumezrag Mokrani|ar|بومزراق المقراني}}

==References== {{reflist}}

== External links == * [http://patrimoine.region-bretagne.fr/gertrude-diffusion/dossier/retranchements-4e-quart-17e-siecle-puis-fortifications-extra-urbaines-4e-quart-18e-siecle-de-quelern-cr-36-39-roscanvel/5410634a-3342-4449-a0d7-172cf105b5d8/illustration/42 2004 Aerial photograph]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fort Quélern}} Category:Castles in France Category:Barracks in France Category:Military installations of France Category:Prisons in France Category:Penal labour Category:Mokrani Revolt Category:Military installations established in 1854