Fort Bourguignon

Fort Bourguignon (Fort Monsival) is one of many fortresses in Pula, Croatia, which were built by the Austrian Empire in the second half of 19th century.

The chief reason for building the fortress was to protect the main Austrian naval port. It was one of the last fortresses built to create the inner fortification rings, forming an arc within a radius of 2.5 km distance in order to protect Pula's port. It was named after the Austrian admiral Anton Bourguignon von Baumberg. The fortress is inspired by the 1820 fortress design of Archduke Maximilian of Austria–Este for protecting Linz, Austria. Pula's fortresses differ from the original Linz fortress in that older fortresses built between the years 1851 - 1855 are smaller and weaker than the ones built ten years later, like Fort Bourguignon. Originally called Fort Monsival, it was built from 1861 to 1866, like a two-story circled fortress with a small circular court yard in the center.

The hallway faces the yard and expands through every floor, while 20 casemates form the outer shell of the fortress. The fort has three embrasures on the lower floor for rifles, and one embrasure on the upper floor for one cannon. The ceiling is supported by massive oak beams, which once divided the two floors in each casemate, but now only a few examples remain. The roof of the fortress, which was able to rotate full 360 degrees, served as a moving platform for artillery. The iron roof was probably constructed around the end of 19th century and still exists today. The entrance into the Fort was protected by the drawbridge and two caponiers, while the surroundings of the fortress have a protective moat, as well as a wall with the gallery and embrasures for the rifles. The standard armor of the Pula's fortresses and probably also in Fort Bourguignon's was 305 mm mortar, the most famous Austrian cannon during first world war.

It is not known when the fortress stopped being used as a fortification, but it is acknowledged that it served its purpose during Third Italian War of Independence in 1866. Soon afterward, it was considered non-operational, but the damage on the roof shows that it was still used during First World War as an army shelter. In the 1970s, the protective channel was half filled with trash, and ten years later a group of young activists turned the fort into one of the two most popular places for rave parties on the southern Adriatic coast. Many people opposed such development; other people had different visions for the future of the fort. Architect Branko Bratković proposed the transformation of the inner ring into cultural gatherings, but post-war Croatia showed little interest for such goals. Others have proposed the transformation of the Fort into an artistic workshop.