The first fortification at the Perches hill was an excavated rampart dating to 1815. A dry-masonry fort was built at the Basses Perches location in 1870 by Colonel Pierre Denfert-Rochereau during his defense of Belfort, at an elevation of 425 m. The present Fort des Basses Perches was built on this site, as it had proven to be a strategically important part of the southern defenses of Belfort during the Franco-Prussian War. The roughly rectangular fort is notable for its early use of counterscarps in place of caponiers, which had been more popular until then.