Fortress Koblenz-Fort Großfürst Konstantin

The fort was constructed in the 1820s as an outpost of the Feste Kaiser Alexander and was connected to it by an underground passage. It is situated on a plateau that previously marked the site of a Carthusian monastery. The complex was named after Konstantin Pavlovich, the brother of Russian Tsar Alexander I. As early as 1153, a Benedictine monastery of St. Beatus was documented at this location. Archaeological finds confirm a small church building from the 10th/11th century and a larger church from the 12th century, which was destroyed during the bombardment by French troops in the War of the Palatine Succession in 1688. In 1331, the Benedictine monastery was converted into a Carthusian monastery, which shaped religious life in Koblenz for almost 500 years. After the conquest of Koblenz by French revolutionary troops in 1794, the monastery was secularized in 1802, and its buildings were acquired and demolished by the Prussians in 1818. The construction of the Prussian fort took place between 1822 and 1827 under the direction of military engineers Gärtner and Schuberth.