Unearthed blockhouses will be integrated into a future residential area

In Brest, development work in the future Fontaine-Margot district has brought to light a set of six blockhouses dating from the Second World War. They will be integrated into the project of the future district. The idea is to make them accessible to the public.

Regularly, the past of the harbor of Brest resurfaces during earthworks. The coast being full of bunkers from the Second World War, it is not uncommon for some to be discovered under the blows of diggers.

Thus, a few months ago, seven blockhouses having defended the German lines, were unearthed learthworks in the residential district of La Fontaine-Margot, in the west of Brest. A district which should accommodate 1,000 housing units‘ici 2024.

If it is not uncommon to discover isolated bunkers, it is much more so that there are several grouped together. A fortified site which is therefore of historical interest and which will be partly preserved on the site of the future district.

As Olivier Duigou, operations manager at Brest Métropole Aménagement, explains, it is also a question of making these blockhouses accessible to the public.

If one of them has been destroyed – its location being incompatible with future buildings and in a lesser state -, the other six will be highlighted in the heart of a public garden where signage will be installed with indications historical. Future residents can even walk through one of the bunkers.

As Guillaume Lécuillier, in charge of studies for the heritage inventory of the Brittany Region, points out, “cWhat is striking here is the state of conversation, quite incredible on the scale of Brittany”.

The fortified complex belonged to the main combat line of Brest, implemented in 1943. These blockhouses participated in the defense of the road to Guilers, the current road to Kerléo. It constituted at the time an access to the city of Brest and therefore needed to be protected from the attacks of the allies.