This defensive wall was built in 1898-99 to block the gap in the Fonts de Cervières valley. The masonry wall is 328 m long and 2.5 m high, with more than a hundred firing battlements.
Unterraced and preceded by a small ditch, the wall itself has a total length of 328.32 m, consisting of two straight alignments, terminated at both ends by a return and grafted onto a sort of central flat bastion, with one front and two flanks, which flanks it.
Founded on a stepped footing to adapt to the sloping terrain, it has an average height of 2.40 to 2.50 m and a thickness of 0.45 ln, and is built of rough rubble masonry, hourd with lime mortar and unplastered.
It is pierced at regular intervals by 134 "arched" crenellations and, in addition, by two passages, originally 2.36 and 2.80 m long, for paths. The south-east section included a small building measuring 5 x 3 m, leaning against the wall and used as a guardhouse for 6 men.
Abandoned long ago, the structure has deteriorated as a result of weathering and the vandalism of stone salvagers: the coping tablet has disappeared, the guardhouse is in ruins and collapses are multiplying.
The design of the Aittes wall (and its counterparts at Serre des Armes and Pas du Berger) is reminiscent of the layout of the "Vaudois wall", its ancestor by several centuries, and perhaps its inspiration. Given its date of construction, and with its thoroughly medieval structures, anywhere else it would appear to be a blatant anachronism in relation to the general technical context.
Founded on a stepped footing to adapt to the sloping terrain, it has an average height of 2.40 to 2.50 m and a thickness of 0.45 ln, and is built of rough rubble masonry, hourd with lime mortar and unplastered.
It is pierced at regular intervals by 134 "arched" crenellations and, in addition, by two passages, originally 2.36 and 2.80 m long, for paths. The south-east section included a small building measuring 5 x 3 m, leaning against the wall and used as a guardhouse for 6 men.
Abandoned long ago, the structure has deteriorated as a result of weathering and the vandalism of stone salvagers: the coping tablet has disappeared, the guardhouse is in ruins and collapses are multiplying.
The design of the Aittes wall (and its counterparts at Serre des Armes and Pas du Berger) is reminiscent of the layout of the "Vaudois wall", its ancestor by several centuries, and perhaps its inspiration. Given its date of construction, and with its thoroughly medieval structures, anywhere else it would appear to be a blatant anachronism in relation to the general technical context.
