Forts de l'Esseillon: Fort Victor-Emmanuel

Built from 1820 to 1833, in the magnificent site of the Haute-Maurienne mountains, the immense citadel of Esseillon, keeps Mont-Cenis, gateway to Piedmont. Built by the kings of Piedmont-Sardinia to guard against French invasions, five forts were built between 1,200 and 1,500 meters above sea level; they were given the names of the sovereigns of the time: Redoute Marie-Thérèse, Fort Victor-Emmanuel, Fort Charles-Félix, Fort Marie-Christine, Fort Charles-Albert.

Fort Victor-Emmanuel, built between 1820 and 1828, is the largest structure in the fortified chain: it covered the Marie-Thérèse redoubt and the Mont-Cenis road with its lights, and housed most of the barracks, as well that all the additional services necessary for the life of a garrison of 1500 men: chapel, hospital, kitchens ... This set was completed, from 1833, by the installation of a penitentiary, essentially intended for the incarceration of political opponents to the Sardinian monarchy.

The buildings are spread over a hundred meters of elevation. They are protected to the south, to the west and to the north by the natural escarpments of the terrain, to the east by a large ditch dug into the thickness of the rock.
Ten buildings separated by narrow platforms, follow one another from bottom to top of the fort; they are connected by a double circulation system which crosses the buildings from side to side: staircase for men, ramps for equipment pulled by mules.