Fort du Chay, Abandoned fortification in Royan, France

Fort du Chay is an abandoned fortification built on a rocky outcrop near Royan on the French coast. What remains today are mostly concrete bunkers embedded into the cliffs, representing different periods of military construction.

A battery with eight cannons was built on the Guette-Lamy height in 1757 under the Marquis de Senneterre. After a naval battle off Royan in 1811, Napoleon I had it transformed into a full fort whose geometric layout followed the terrain. German forces integrated it into the Gironde Mündung Nord defenses in 1940, and an Allied air raid almost entirely destroyed it in 1945.

The name comes from the adjacent Chay beach, and the site is now a place of memory: a stele installed in 2012 on the coastal promenade honours Allied servicemen of Operation Frankton (1942). A memorial erected in 2022 commemorates those killed in the bombings.

The site sits directly beside a beach and is freely accessible from outside. The best views are found along nearby pathways and from the shore itself, particularly at low tide.

The fort's ruins were demolished shortly after 1945 to build a residence and a hotel complex, so only a few German bunkers remain. Since 2012 a stele on the coastal promenade commemorates the Allied soldiers of Operation Frankton (1942).