The commune of Villey is the only example in France of a village that is surrounded by a defensive enclosure built in the late 19C. Although building was completed in the space of five years, the fort played no active role in the First World War. The exterior of the north battery, with its armoured façade and observatories, its ditch and machine gun turret, prefigures what was to come later with the heavy fortifications of the Maginot Line. Besides its shops and barracks, the fort (accessible by railway) houses the Musée Séré-de-Rivières and a commemorative crypt.