Ouvrage Anzeling, Military fortification in Piblange, France

Ouvrage Anzeling is an underground fortress near Piblange that consists of several separate combat blocks linked together by tunnels running beneath the ground. This stronghold was built in the 1930s as part of a network of fortifications meant to defend a strategic border area.

This stronghold was built between 1930 and 1940 as one of many defensive works that France constructed to protect its borders. It reflects the military thinking of that era, when underground and fortified positions were seen as the most effective defense strategy.

The fort's name comes from the nearby village of Anzeling, whose valley and stream it overlooked from height 260 in the Dordtaz forest. Its generating plant had a ventilation shaft nicknamed the fosse aux ours, "bear pit", large enough to carry its own mixed-arms turret. The site was sold for private use after deactivation in the 1970s.

The ouvrage is privately owned and deactivated, so there is no regular public access; visits depend on the owner's permission. The combat blocks stand on the 260-metre contour in the forest at a spot called Dordtaz, above the Anzeling valley. The entrances lie more than a kilometre to the rear of the combat blocks, linked by galleries about 30 metres below ground.

Anzeling's 60 cm narrow-gauge railway was not automatic: it entered at the munitions entrance and ran through the galleries to the combat blocks, linking them to supply points to the rear and to other ouvrages. Block 5 is unusual in mounting a 135 mm howitzer in a façade embrasure as well as in a turret.