Fort d'Aubervilliers | |
---|---|
Part of Thiers fortifications of Paris | |
Aubervilliers, France | |
Coordinates | 48°54′39″N2°24′22″E / 48.91083°N 2.40611°E |
Type | Fort |
Site information | |
Owner | Ministry of Defense |
Controlled by | France |
Condition | Occupied by Ministry of Defense, Gendarmerie Mobile |
Site history | |
Built | 1842 |
Battles/wars | Siege of Paris (1870-1871) |
The Fort d'Aubervilliers is a former fortification of Paris built for 1842 to 1846 in Aubervilliers to control the "route de Flandre", now Route nationale 2, to the northeast of Paris. The Fort d'Aubervilliers is part of the first ring of Paris fortifications outside the old city walls built by Adolphe Thiers in the 1840s to defend the capital against invasion and to control the city's rebellions.
The Fort d'Aubervilliers formed part of a line of outlying forts surrounding the Thiers wall, which was begun as part of a program proposed in 1830 to fortify Paris. Property was acquired in 1841 and work began in 1842, with completion in 1846. The fort is pentagonal in shape with five bastions. Six casemates defend the main entry, with posterns on other faces. There are two sets of thirteen casemates on the side facing the front. Two original powder magazines were superseded by newer, better-protected magazines in 1874. [1] The fort was used during the First World War as a workshop for the filling of toxic gas artillery shells by the French Army. The fort made the first phosgene shells used by the French Army starting in August 1915. [2]
Frédéric and Irène Joliot-Curie carried out studies on radioactivity at the Fort d'Aubervilliers during the 1920s and 1930s. The Curies worked with salts of radium 226. [3] Later on experiments carried out by the army to support nuclear tests in Algeria caused serious contamination to the fort.
Decontamination started in 1990 by the Agence Nationale de gestion des Déchets Radioactifs (National Agency for Radioactive Waste Management) (ANDRA). 61 barrels with caesium-137 and radium-226 contamination are still stored at the fort, together with 60 cubic meters of contaminated soil. Dominique Voynet, former senator and minister of environmental affairs, stated that there were new areas of contamination on the site in 2006. An article in Le Parisien alleged that there were excess incidents of cancer in the area. [4] [5]
The Fort d'Aubervilliers is surrounded by garden allotments and adjoins the Cimetière de Pantin. It gives its name to the Fort d'Aubervillers station of Line 7 of the Paris Métro, opened in 1979. A barracks housing a unit of the Mobile Gendarmerie riot force uses the fort's entrance. Bartabas, a horse trainer and show presenter, has used the site since 1998 for presentations, with a horse ring, stage and restaurant on the site [6] The rear part of the site is used as an automobile salvage yard.
The fort site has been the subject of numerous studies for urban renewal, such as a new location for the Bichat–Claude Bernard Hospital or the construction of a velodrome, but the radioactive contamination problem has prevented action. Some land will be freed when the riot police detachment leaves the fort.
Architect Philippe Madec has proposed that about 2000 dwelling units be built on the site, to be built in 2015-2020. The fort's ditch is to be retained to provide a green space surrounding the development. [7] [8]
Maria Salomea Skłodowska-Curie, known simply as Marie Curie, was a Polish and naturalised-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person to win a Nobel Prize twice, and the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two scientific fields. Her husband, Pierre Curie, was a co-winner of her first Nobel Prize, making them the first-ever married couple to win the Nobel Prize and launching the Curie family legacy of five Nobel Prizes. She was, in 1906, the first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris.
Pierre Curie was a French physicist, a pioneer in crystallography, magnetism, piezoelectricity, and radioactivity. In 1903, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics with his wife, Marie Skłodowska–Curie, and Henri Becquerel, "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel". With their win, the Curies became the first ever married couple to win the Nobel Prize, launching the Curie family legacy of five Nobel Prizes.
Irène Joliot-Curie was a French chemist, physicist and politician, the elder daughter of Pierre Curie and Marie Skłodowska–Curie, and the wife of Frédéric Joliot-Curie. Jointly with her husband, Joliot-Curie was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935 for their discovery of induced radioactivity, making them the second-ever married couple to win the Nobel Prize, while adding to the Curie family legacy of five Nobel Prizes. This made the Curies the family with the most Nobel laureates to date. She was also one of the first three women to be a member of a French government, becoming undersecretary for Scientific Research under the Popular Front in 1936. Both children of the Joliot-Curies, Hélène and Pierre, are also prominent scientists.
Institut Curie is a medical, biological and biophysical research centre in France. It is a private non-profit foundation operating a research center on biophysics, cell biology and oncology and a hospital specialized in treatment of cancer. It is located in Paris, France.
Jean Frédéric Joliot-Curie was a French physicist and husband of Irène Joliot-Curie, with whom he was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935 for their discovery of induced radioactivity. They were the second ever married couple, after his wife's parents, to win the Nobel Prize, adding to the Curie family legacy of five Nobel Prizes. Joliot-Curie and his wife also founded the Orsay Faculty of Sciences, part of the Paris-Saclay University.
Aubervilliers is a commune in the Seine-Saint-Denis department, Île-de-France region, northeastern suburbs of Paris, France. The inhabitants of the commune are known as Albertivillariens or Albertivillariennes.
The Cimetière parisien de Pantin is one of the three Parisien cemeteries extra muros, located in the commune of Pantin which is in Seine-Saint-Denis, Île-de-France.
Induced radioactivity, also called artificial radioactivity or man-made radioactivity, is the process of using radiation to make a previously stable material radioactive. The husband-and-wife team of Irène Joliot-Curie and Frédéric Joliot-Curie discovered induced radioactivity in 1934, and they shared the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for this discovery.
Hélène Langevin-Joliot is a French nuclear physicist known for her research on nuclear reactions in French laboratories and for being the granddaughter of Marie Curie and Pierre Curie and the daughter of Irene Joliot-Curie and Frédéric Joliot-Curie, all four of whom have received Nobel Prizes, in Physics or Chemistry. Since retiring from a career in research Hélène has participated in activism centered around encouraging women and girls to participate in STEM fields. Her activism also revolves around promoting greater science literacy for the general public.
The Musée Curie is a historical museum focusing on radiological research. It is located in the 5th arrondissement at 1, rue Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France, and open Wednesday to Saturday, from 1pm to 5pm; admission is free. The museum was renovated in 2012, thanks to a donation from Ève Curie.
The fortifications of Paris in the 19th and 20th centuries comprise:
Fort d'Ivry was built in the Paris suburb of Ivry-sur-Seine between 1841 and 1845, as one of the forts in a ring of strong points surrounding Paris. The fort is about 1 kilometre outside the Thiers Wall, built by the same program in response to a perception that Paris was vulnerable to invasion and occupation. The fort was upgraded in the 1870s, to cope with improvements in artillery performance as part of the Séré de Rivières system. In 1946, the fort was vacated by the garrison. It is now the home of the Communication and Audiovisual Production Company for the Department of Defense.
The Batterie de Bouviers is located in the commune of Guyancourt, Yvelines, France. It is a former fortification built beginning in 1879 and occupied by the army until 1932. From 1933 it was leased by the Hispano Suiza company as a factory, surrounded by other industrial structures. The site was abandoned by Hispano Suiza in 1990, and was sold by the Ministry of Defense in 1999. In 2006 the battery became the "Cafe Musiques", surrounded by office buildings and a music school.
The Fort de Vaujours, located in the commune of Courtry, Seine-Saint-Denis, near the town of Vaujours, is one of the forts built at the end of the 19th century to defend Paris. It became a research center for the Commissariat à l'énergie atomique (CEA), France's Atomic Energy Commission. The center was closed in 1997.
The Fort de Bicêtre is a military structure built between 1841 and 1845 during the reign of Louis-Philippe during a time of tension between France and England, in the Paris suburb of Kremlin-Bicêtre. The fort is part of the Thiers Wall fortifications of Paris, built under a program of defensive works initiated by Adolphe Thiers. The fort served as a prison for those involved in the French coup of 1851.
Ștefania Mărăcineanu was a Romanian physicist. She worked with Marie Curie studying the element named for Curie's homeland Polonium. She made proposals that would lead to Irène Joliot-Curie's Nobel Prize. Mărăcineanu believed that Joliot-Curie had taken her work on Induced radioactivity to gain the prize.
The church of Notre-Dame-des-Vertus is a Roman Catholic church in Aubervilliers, Seine-Saint-Denis, France. It is listed as a Historic Monument.
Pascal Beaudet was a French politician. A member of the French Communist Party (PCF), he was mayor of Aubervilliers from 2003 to 2008 and again from 2014 to 2016. He was then General Councilor of the Canton of Aubervilliers from 2011 to 2015, and a member of the Departmental Council of Seine-Saint-Denis from 2015 to 2021.
Catherine Chamié was a French chemist. Along with Irène Joliot-Curie, she first measured the Half-life of radon. She also undertook extensive research on the photographic effect of groupings of atoms, an effect which bears her name, known as Chamié effect.