Fort Lamalgue

During the siege of 1707, Fort Saint-Louis, facing the sea, was attacked by Austro-Savoyard batteries erected on the neighboring height of La Malgue. The fort was disabled and abandoned after a cannonade of nearly ten days. The fall of this work allowed the bombardment of the city and port from the roadstead, confirming the key role of this position facing the sea. Following these events, it was decided to strengthen the city's defenses. At La Malgue ("the margin" in Provençal), a small redoubt with two dry-stone half-moons was begun in 1738. Located on a height, it protected the entrance to the small roadstead. Construction of the fort began in 1764 by the military engineer Millet de Monville, director of fortifications. Only the return of peace after the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) allowed the works to be financed sustainably (but slowly). Around a large main courtyard, four bastions were built, each with its casemate. Its construction was only completed around 1789. It was designed to house a garrison of 600 men. Joubert having been mortally wounded at the Battle of Novi on August 15, 1799, the First Consul had his remains deposited in Fort La Malgue, thereafter called Fort Joubert. He was then buried in the church of Pont-de-Vaux, his native village.

The fort served as a prison mainly during the revolutionary period, then after the Var insurrection in 1851, and until 1923. Emir Abd el-Kader (1808-1883) was detained there for a few weeks in 1848.

After fighting against the colonization of Algeria, he surrendered to General de Lamoricière with the promise of being sent into exile in Saint-Jean-d'Acre or Alexandria. He, along with part of his family and entourage, embarked on the frigate Asmodée which disembarked them in Toulon on December 29. They were quarantined at the lazaretto of Saint-Mandrier. King Louis-Philippe was in favor of his transfer to Alexandria but Parliament opposed it. Abd-el-Kader and part of his family were transferred on January 11, 1848, to Fort Lamalgue, while his entourage was installed at Fort Malbousquet. Nothing had been prepared for his arrival and the fort was ill-suited for housing a family (Abd el-Kader was then surrounded by his three wives, his four youngest children, and his 75-year-old mother). The Toulon poet Charles Poncy, Colonel Eugène Daumas, commissioned by the Ministry of War for his surveillance, as well as government commissioner Émile Ollivier who came to Toulon in March 1848 (on behalf of the provisional government, after the fall of Louis-Philippe) pleaded with the government for an exile in the East, in accordance with the promise made, or for his release, but to no avail: the government chose to transfer him to a less precarious location, the Château de Pau. Abd-el-Kader, his family, and his entourage therefore left Toulon on April 23, 1848, by boat towards Sète to reach Béarn. A street in Toulon in the Lamalgue district and a casemate of the fort bear his name.

During the Second World War, the PC of the admiral commanding in the Mediterranean was installed in the fort. The Naval School, relocated from Brest to Lot, was installed at Fort Lamalgue from the start of the 1941 academic year. On November 27, 1942, the order to scuttle the fleet departed from Fort Lamalgue (which housed the general telephone exchange and, moreover, was attacked first by the Germans who arrived from the east) towards the ships based in the Toulon arsenal.

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