Fort Istibey

Fort Istibey (Greek: Οχυρό Ιστίμπεη) is a fortress on Mount Beles, Central Macedonia, at the north border of Greece. It became part of the fortifications of the Metaxas Line in the 1930s and became famous for its defence during the German invasion of Greece in April 1941.

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). 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.

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  External view
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  Entrance to the fort

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.