In 1910, the ship joined the school for engineers at Lorient, and, two years later, returned to Rochefort as a hulk.

The Wattignies-class cruisers were designed as enlarged and improved versions of the preceding Condor class by Louis de Bussy in 1888.

The design was created in response to the 1884 publication La marine de guerre, son passé et son avenir, cuirassé et torpilleurs (The navy, its past and its future, battleship and torpedo boat), in which Minister of Marine, Auguste Gougeard, articulated his vision of the warship of the future.

he machinery was designed to produce a total of 4,000 PS (2,900 kW) intended to give them a maximum speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph).

The deck was armoured with curved wrought iron that was 40 mm (1.6 in) thick in a similar way to the preceding Condor class.

At the same time, two of the 37 mm (1.5 in) Hotchkiss revolver cannons had been replaced by QF guns of the same bore.

Named after the Battle of Fleurus, the ship was laid down at the shipyard in Rochefort on 11 March 1891, the machinery having been ordered on 18 February.

[6] The cruiser was commissioned into the Mediterranean Squadron (Escadre de la Méditerranée).

The upper plates in the new boilers leaked and the ship was taken back to the yard for further work before returning to trials in March.

[3] Once trials were completed in March 1901, Fleurus was commissioned and deployed to Brest, joining the reserve of the Northern Squadron.