Tegart Forts Conservation Policy
The firm published a research and policy document that includes both recent and historical background about the Tegart fort structures in the Land of Israel. The study examined historical influences dating back hundreds of years to the Crusader period, along with historical events that took place in the 20th century and led to the construction of the last fortresses in the Land of Israel – the Tegart forts.
Background and introduction
The Tegart Forts are a series of sixty-three forts built by the British Mandate in Palestine in the 1940s. These fortifications were dispersed throughout the country, close to main roads, in and outside of big cities and close to borders. These structures served as police stations that were built according to the plan of Sir Charles Tegart, and were among the largest construction projects in this region. Construction of this large- scale enterprise, was executed at unprecedented construction costs and at record speed. The Tegart forts are an important milestone of the architectural and military history of Israel.
The forts were built with high quality reinforced concrete ushering in an era of large-scale buildings of reinforced concrete. A typical plan for the forts is a rectangular structure with a flat roof, surrounding a courtyard, whose outer walls form the citadel’s fortifications together with two defense towers at their ends.
We studied the methods and means of planning and construction, but also the underlying cultural concept that guided the British administration, whose roots are embedded in centuries-old physical, religious and cultural heritage.
With the outbreak of the War of Independence, the establishment of the State of Israel and the transformation of the forts into strategic arenas, the forts underwent a cultural appropriation. They were assimilated into the battle heritage and into the story of the establishment of the State of Israel, and became symbols of Israeli rule and power for the following eight decades.
The Document:
The document reviews the history of the fortresses from their planning, through their construction, the struggle for control over them in the 1948 war, to their various uses today. We examine a series of fortifications that were declared by UNESCO, as a basis for assessing the Tegart forts as a unique phenomenon. The paper points to the historical and cultural strata that underlay and influenced the planning of the Tegart forts.
Test cases of several forts were presented in order to demonstrate the values that they express, the dilemmas involved in their conservation, the conclusions drawn from the study and recommendations for further action, in light of the accelerated development and construction in the State of Israel in recent years.
The document was published by the Council for the Preservation of Heritage Sites in Israel and has been adopted by the Planning Administration as an official planning policy document to be used as the basis for the conservation of the Tegart fortresses in Israel.
