Fort #1 Chitila Traditional Cache

     Brialmont and Carol I

     General Henri Alexi Brialmont was the best known and appreciated military engineer of the nineteenth-century city fortifications: Liege, Namur, Antwerp and... Bucharest.
Upon his arrival in Romania's capital, in 1883, he explained King Carol I.. that "a fortified Bucharest would increase the importance of Romania's strategy and military force".
     As Carol I shared the same belief, were allocated needed money and went over to the construction of the 36 defense points. The 18 forts and 18 batteries were to be equipped with heavy artillery battle domes arranged and interconnected by underground tunnels. This tunnels were to be inhabited by a total of 33.000 soldiers, with the strongest points in the Northwest and Northeast.

     Bucharest fortifications in WW I

     Forts and batteries were numbered 1-18 , and 1-2 / 18-1, starting from Fort 1 Chitila. From 1884, it took 10 years to built all of them and it cost the equivalent of 613 million Euro.
In 1914 some of the weapons had been moved to Cernavoda and Turtucaia so that many of the forts were left uncovered.
     It is said that insufficient garrison troops, weapons engineering and maintenance of increasingly cumbersome forts have led to the partial deactivation of the belt in late 1914 and complete disarmament later, just on the WWI eve.
     In 1916, Romania entered the war and lost battles to Neajlov and Arges, then retreating troops to Moldova. The German army, well prepared for the siege of the capital, had a great surprise to discover that Bucharest was disarmed just before entering the war. Bucharest was occupied without a fight on November 23 / December 6, 1916.

    Fort1 Chitila

    Along with Fort Otopeni, Chitila is the only one that was built entirely according to the Brialmont's plans, in a pentagonal shape.
    Initial equipment: 3 double domes Montlucon and St Chamond type - cal 15mm, 2 simple mortar turrets Montlucon type - cal. 21mm, 5 eclipse turrets Gruson type and 13 Gruson & Hotchkiss turrets cal. 53mm.
    The fort, which covers more than 6 acres, was disarmed in 1916. The land now partially belongs to a private company that serves as storage for wine.

   Warning:
   The access area to the fort is full of rubbish! (For those who want to) It's a good opportunity to practice CITO: cache in, trash out.