His Aesthetic Fortresses Are Located All Over France

24.09.2023 - 10:39 / forbes.com

For three centuries the history of France has been shaped by fortresses you probably never heard of, but which you are likely to encounter if traveling through the country.

Born in the year 1633 in north-central France, Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban not only developed methods of siege warfare, he took part in 130 military actions and was also responsible—during his 54-year career—for building 160 fortresses throughout France for King Louis XIV. He became a military captain, the king’s engineer, a marshal and often traveled over 2,000 miles [3,500 kilometers] a year either as a soldier or planner of forts or as infrastructure advisor to the king (in 1861 he traveled 4,600 miles [7,500 kilometers] in 250 days). During the 77 year duration of the king’s life, France was at war for 60 years; hence Vauban’s military skills were considered of great value. In addition to planning military architecture, he was also responsible for civil works: he created a tunnel and organized a drainage system for the Canal-du-Midi that runs between the Mediterranean Sea and city of Toulouse.

During years of living in France I have unexpectedly happened on over a half dozen Vauban fortresses. Many of these massive enclaves still include thriving villages, bustling towns and even an active military barracks. Several are classified as UNESCO World Heritage sites. From the chilly Pyrenees peaks in southeast France (Mont-Louis) to northwestern coastal Brittany (Saint-Malo), and from France’s highest city in the Alps (Briançon) to vineyard flatlands in southwestern Bordeaux (Blaye), many of these beautiful fortresses are still structurally sound and have transformed to magnets for cultural and sporting events.

Vauban designed these outposts to be both militarily strategic as well as economically functional; many include barracks, armories and gunpowder magazines as well as buildings for local commercial merchants. He integrated architecture into existing landscapes, including cliffs, peaks and shorelines, and often chose not to raze existing structures, but to incorporate them into his new works.

Both practical and visionary, Vauban shifted the military mindset of the day from defense to offense, and calculated not only the dimensions of all elements of a fortress, but the length of time it would take an enemy to advance through each layer of defense. As author Martha Pollak wrote in her book regarding military architecture and cartography, ‘Vauban reduced the defense and attack of fortresses to double-entry bookkeeping, where the two columns balance each other out precisely.’

A few Vauban sites are described below.

Villefranche-de-Conflent in the southeast of France is located in a valley that leads to the Pyrenees peaks, and