Fortress Mainz-Fort Weisenau

With the handover of the Fortress of Mainz in 1825 to the German Confederation, a further extensive expansion of the entire fortress system was decided, whose concept was based on a spatially deep defensive zone for the fortress. For this purpose, a system of detached forts was developed.

The excavation alone employed 420 workers at that time. Including the three two-story redoubts, the fort extended over a width of 250 m from the Weisenau slope to today's Göttelmannstraße. The new form of arranging multi-story gun emplacements in polygonal or round cavaliers in lower-lying towers goes back to the Austrian Genie Direction. Fort Weisenau is equipped with escarpment galleries and casemates (redoubts). This type of fortress construction was considered exceptionally defensible until the turn of the century. The costs for the fort were covered by the considerable reparation payments in the wake of the Second Peace of Paris.

According to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, Fort Weisenau was razed in 1922. The liberated area could only be used from 1930, after the end of the Allied occupation of the Rhineland. Individual casemates have been preserved to this day. The escarpment gallery on the eastern flank of the fort (Rhine side) is completely preserved. Above ground, the escarpment enclosure to the rear field with an access portal is still visible. A total of fifteen bays form its bent course. The bays with partition walls correspond to the construction segmental arches built in yellow sandstone ashlar masonry, each with 5 slit windows. The gallery was connected to the three redoubts by corridors. After the razing of the fort, however, these connections were destroyed.

The preserved remains were placed under monument protection in 1993 under Mayor Herman-Hartmut Weyel.