Fort Istibey (Greek: Οχυρό Ιστίμπεη) is one of the World War II-era fortifications of the Metaxas Line, on Mount Beles, Central Macedonia along Greece's northern border. It is situated 16 km north of Neo Petritsi village on the mount Belasica (Greek: mount Belles) at an altitude of 1.339 meters. The main mission of the fort was to prevent entrance to the country from Bulgaria. It occupied 13 officers and 350 soldiers. It commander in chief was Ksanthos Pikoulakis.
The fort was active until April 1941, when it was forced to surrunder to German troops.
In 1991 the Panhellenic Association of Combatants and Friends of the Forts of Macedonia and Thrace funded the construction of a small museum on this site in commemoration of its role in the Battle of the Forts in April 1941, against invading German forces.
Access to the museum is restricted: permission must be obtained from the military unit stationed at Petritsi, which is four kilometres off the Serres-Promachonas National road (Kilkis junction), then the steep fourteen-kilometre-long road leading to Fort Istibey must be negotiated. Foreign nationals must have obtained a special permit from the Hellenic Army General Staff.
The museum contains firearms (rifles, revolvers, pistols and machine-guns) belonging to the Greek and German armies, army uniforms of the time, various personal belongings of the defenders, as well as a map detailing the Battle of the Forts. During visits a film is also shown, which tells the story of the battle at Fort Istibey.
Sources[]
- The original version of this article was taken from the corresponding article at the Museums of Macedonia website, commissioned by the Macedonian Heritage foundation, written by Vlasis Vlasidis, and published under a CC-BY-SA-3.0 license.
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The original article can be found at Fort Istibey and the edit history here.