The Fort d'Uxegney is part of the fortifications of Épinal. It was built near the village of Uxegney between 1882 and 1884, and was modernized in 1910. It is an example of a Séré de Rivières system fortification. It retains its armament and is maintained as a museum.
Fort d'Uxegney is part of a 43-kilometre (27 mi) line of sixteen major fortifications designed to bar the advance of a German army into France. It retains a functioning example of an eclipsing Galopin turret. Armed with a 155mm gun, the assembly weighs 250 tons and was installed in 1907. A considerable amount of the fort's equipment remains in place, including kitchens, living facilities and details of armament, in an unusually good state of preservation.
In 1914 a further project to add two 155mm gun turrets in a separate armored battery was proposed, but was canceled by the outbreak of war. The Fort d'Uxegney saw no action during World War I, as the Germans did not advance into the area around Épinal. During World War II the Germans left Uxegney intact even as they stripped other forts around Épinal.
The French army used both forts as ammunition depots until 1960. They were afterwards abandoned. Since 1989 the Association pour la Restauration du Fort d'Uxegney et de la Place d'Épinal has restored and maintained the Uxegney site. The fort may be visited between May and September.
References:Saint-Georges de Boscherville Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey. It was founded in about 1113 by Guillaume de Tancarville on the site of an earlier establishment of secular canons and settled by monks from the Abbey of Saint-Evroul. The abbey church made of Caumont stone was erected from 1113 to 1140. The Norman builders aimed to have very well-lit naves and they did this by means of tall, large windows, initially made possible by a wooden ceiling, which prevented uplift, although this was replaced by a Gothic vault in the 13th century. The chapter room was built after the abbey church and dates from the last quarter of the 12th century.
The arrival of the Maurist monks in 1659, after the disasters of the Wars of Religion, helped to get the abbey back on a firmer spiritual, architectural and economic footing. They erected a large monastic building one wing of which fitted tightly around the chapter house (which was otherwise left as it was).