Fortifications of Vauban

The Fortifications of Vauban are twelve groups of fortified buildings that form a defensive ring around France. They were constructed by Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban (1633-1707), military engineer of King Louis XIV and influential far beyond the French borders. The remaining sites include both fortifications and various kinds of military buildings.

The 12 sites selected to be part of the World Heritage are:
- Arras: citadel
- Besançon: citadel, city walls and Fort Griffon
- Blaye-Cussac-Fort-Médoc: citadel of Blaye, city walls, Fort Paté and Fort Médoc
- Briançon: city walls, Redoute des Salettes, Fort des Trois-Têtes, Fort du Randouillet, ouvrage de la communication Y and the Asfeld Bridge
- Camaret-sur-Mer: Tour dorée (lit. "Golden Tower") aka. Tour Vauban
- Longwy: ville neuve
- Mont-Dauphin: place forte
- Mont-Louis: citadel and city walls
- Neuf-Brisach: ville neuve/Breisach (Germany): gateway of the Rhine
- Saint-Martin-de-Ré: city walls and citadel
- Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue/Tatihou: watchtowers
- Villefranche-de-Conflent: city walls, Fort Libéria and Cova Bastera

Two sites initially nominated by France were removed from the final list:
- Bazoches, Nièvre: château
- Belle-Île-en-Mer, Morbihan: citadel and walls surrounding Le Palais

Year	Decision	Comments
2008	Inscribed	Reasons for inscription

Visit May 2009

Longwy is situated at a strategic location near the French borders with Belgium and Luxemburg. And that's exactly why Vauban was put to work on it. Longwy is one of the four 'new towns' among the Vauban sites on the World Heritage List. After annexation of this region (Lorraine) by France in 1679, a new town for military purposes was built from scratch.

The town consists of an upper and a lower part. This region has been hit hard in the past by the closure of its steel industry, and it doesn't look to have recovered too well from that yet. Especially the lower town is quite gloomy.
The 18th century Vauban fortifications are in Longwy-Haut. It's a small town, and I could easily park my car at its central square. That's where you'll find two of the landmark sights: the Saint-Dagobert Church and one of the five wells designed by Vauban. The wells were hidden under little bulletproof buildings with a conical roof. They were to supply the military and the civilians with fresh water during a siege. And sieges there were many here, until the town was severely damaged in 1914 during WWI.

Leaving the town center via the pretty Porte de France, it's possible to walk along 50% of the fortified walls (the other half was destroyed). It's a fine half hour walk on a sunny day. The ramparts are two layers thick and have many sharp edges (like points of a spear). The whole system was hexagonal in shape. It might not look extremely interesting to the casual visitor, but I suggest that you read the over 3,000 pages long nomination dossier that was supplied by France to get a real feel for the scale of Vauban's works.

More photos can be found in the Picture Gallery

Reviews

John Booth (New Zealand):
A word to describe Vauban's structures would be 'massive'. The defensive works all appear on a grand scale. But of the 12 locations forming this WHS, only the one at Longwy has been put to the test. The locations that I have visited are :
Neuf Brisach - huge fortifications, huge square and a huge red church (bus from Colmar)
Besancon - Fort Griffen (near the station) and Citadelle (free navette from Parking Chamars)
Briancon - steep streets within massive walls, with several entrance gates (train from Gap then bus #1 to Champ de Mars)
Mont Dauphin - steep hike from Mont Dauphin station (train from Gap)
Villefranche de Conflent - steep climb up to Fort Liberia through a tunnel in the cliff (train from Perpignan)
Mont Louis - fort with steep streets overlooking the Pyrenees (Petit Train Jaune to La Cabanasse)
Fort Medoc/Pate Island/Blaye - three forts on the Gironde river (train to Moulis-Listrac, bus to Cussak or Blaye, or ferry from Blaye to Lamarque)
Ile de Rey - sea walls and fortifications, citadelle occupied by the Militaire (bus from La Rochelle)
Camaret sur Mer - tower at the harbour entrance (bus from Quimper or Brest)
St Vaast La Hogue - fort on Tatihou Island and tower at La Hogue (bus from Cherbourg or Valognes, ferry to the island)
Longwy - massive fort forming the Upper Town, with ramparts, bastions and portals (train from Rheims or Luxembourg, navette to the Upper Town - except Sundays)
Arras - small fort in the city, occupied by the Militaire.
(Arras is also home to some monumental war cemeteries, and the Museum of the Company of New Zealand Tunnelers at the Wellington Quarry).

Date posted: May 2010

Ian Cade (England):

I had already visited several Vauban fortifications; however at the start of 2010 I finally visited one of the fortifications that is inscribed on the list.

Arras
From Lille I decided to visit the citadel at Arras. I apologise to any people out there who have affection for this town but this was one of the worst WHS visiting experiences I have had. The citadel itself was located about a 20 minute walk from the station through a pretty uninteresting part of town. When we got there the interior was closed, which we were pretty much expecting however I had read that there were walks around the outside that could give us a better look. This really was not obvious from the entrance and the banks of the moat just looked overgrown and uninviting. As such after taking a few pictures we just moved on. It seems that you can view something of the fortification from around the back, however there was nothing to indicate this, and we were looking pretty intently. Next to the citadel is a First World War cemetery designed by Edwin Lutyens which was reasonably nice.
We then walked through yet more uninspiring suburbs to the centre of town. It had the potential to be very nice, however something about the place was very uninspiring, after walking around the main ‘sights’ including the lovely belfry we decided to have a coffee that turned out to be exceptionally miserable. Then we just trundled of to the train station preferring to spend our remaining hour and a half there reading rather than exploring more of the town.
I’m sure some people will love Arras, it is seems to be especially good if you are looking for 1990’s French clothing, however I can’t remember a place I have enjoyed less.

Lille
Prior to my uninspiring visit to Arras I visited the Citadel in Lille (a very nice Flemish city with a French twist). This is not part of the World Heritage inscription, I guess because it is still used by the French military. However it is in a much better state of repair and you can see a quite a lot of it. The exterior is easily viewable from the nice tracks that run around the whole of the citadel. Here you can really get a feeling for the shape of the fortifications. The track was being used by a lot of locals for the walking of dogs and children trying out the bikes they got for Christmas. To make up for the fact I had forgot my running shoes I hired a Segway from the car park which was an exceptionally fun and rewarding way to see the entire complex. This provided a much better visiting experience than the one in Arras, and Lille was a much nicer city.

In addition to these I have seen several other Vauban fortifications, the most impressive were Ypres in Belgium and the walls around Luxembourg. There are a lot of his works all over France but I can’t really work out why some are included in the inscription and others are not. They are interesting sites to vist and can be pretty rewarding, I just would not recommend visiting the one in Arras.

Date posted: January 2010

b0b dowd (UK):
Msr Vauban also remodelled the town ramparts of delightful Montreuil-sur-Mer (inlan from Le Touquet, and not now on the sea at all due to silting) and one of his earlier forts was Fort Mahon, Cap de Calais, near Ambleteuse.

The latter is a particularly gloomy though not specially large edifice, gives rise to my thought that he was not a humorous person! However, it is in good repair and easy to reach from "le Chunnel" so worth a visit in season (afternoon opening summertime only)

Date posted: March 2009

Assif Am-David (Israel):
I've been to Neuf-Brisach (Neubreisach) in Alsace a few times (on my way to nearby beautiful and touristic Colmar). It is a small town near the German border with monsterous fortifications. They are so huge and out of proporation for the small and insgnificant provincial town that they almost look rediculously bombastic. Nonethless, they are really and truly owe inspiring.

Date posted: July 2008

Have you been to Fortifications of Vauban? Share your experiences!

Add your own review