Heritage Days 2024 at Fort de Romainville (93) on the trail of the Second World War

If there is one weekend a year when you have to do something in Paris and the Ile-de-France region, it is Journées du Patrimoine (Days of Heritage) To 21 and 22 September 2024! Museums, unusual places, parks and gardens – these are just some of the historical places to visit duringfree events to hear a whole series of anecdotes about our beautiful heritage. Just a short metro ride from Paris, Seine-Saint-Denis offers lots of curiosities to discover!

Fort de Romainville is a typical example, although his story is more tragic than anything else. A Vauban type military defense fortress Located in the town of Les Lilas since 1867, it is best known for its role during the Second World War from the autumn of 1940, when it was used as Internment camp for 7,000 people, mostly Resistance fightersOriginally built at the request of Adolphe Thiers to protect Paris, it served as a refuge for the city's inhabitants during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.

Since 1984, the fort has housed the TDF Tower, designed by the architect Claude Vasconi and built in a disused part of the site. The 141-meter-high tower serves as a radio and television transmitter for the whole of France. For six years, the site was also a non-visitable annex to the Musée National de la Marine, which housed the museum's reserves. Since 2017, a new project has been underway to convert part of the fort into a Memorial.

The programme of the Heritage Days 2024

• Four places of history and remembrance of the Second World War in the Seine-Saint-Denis department.
  Sunday, September 22, 2:00 p.m.

  Bus tour to four World War II sites in Seine-Saint-Denis linked to Nazi oppression and persecution

  Bus tour of four Second World War sites in the Seine-Saint-Denis department linked to Nazi repression and persecution: two sites under construction and partially accessible linked to the repression of the Resistance (the Fort de Romainville in Les Lilas and the Quai aux bestiaux in Pantin) and two open sites linked to the persecution of French Jews: the deportation station in Bobigny and the Shoah memorial opposite the Cité de la Muette, the former camp of Drancy.

  An initiative of the Seine-Saint-Denis department in partnership with Seine-Saint-Denis Tourisme, the Musée de la Résistance Nationale and the town of Les Lilas, the town of Pantin, the Deportation Station Memorial and the town of Bobigny, the Shoah Memorial is part of the “Network Memories: history and heritage of the Second World War in Seine-Saint-Denis” programme.

  Our reading and video recommendations:
  Collection “Lieux d'histoire et de mémoire de la Seconde Guerre mondiale en Seine-Saint-Denis”, available in the Atlas of Architecture and Cultural Heritage
  – Le fort de Romainville aux Lilas (1940-1944)
  – Le camp de la cité de la Muette à Drancy (1941-1944)
  – Les gares de deportation de la région Parisienne (1940 – 1944)

  Collection “Lieux d'histoire et de mémoire de la Seconde Guerre mondiale en Seine-Saint-Denis”, available on the YouTube channel of the Département de la Seine-Saint-Denis
  – Le camp du fort de Romainville aux Lilas
  – Le camp de la cité de la Muette à Drancy