This model shows the town and citadel of Belfort in the 18th century, after completion of the “grand project for the fortification of Belfort” that Vauban proposed in 1687. Over six thousand workers toiled for sixteen years to carry out Vauban’s detailed plans, which included re-routing the Savoureuse River so Read More …
Tower 46 (Tour 46 in French) is one of the three cannon towers that Vauban designed in 1687 for the three corners of his new city walls. Like the other two towers, this one has the shape of a pentagon and is built of pink sandstone and bricks. The lower Read More …
OK, I’ll admit it again. I chose this hotel because of the name. But it turned out to be a pleasant and convenient place to stay, so I can heartily recommend it even to those who are in Belfort for other reasons. After a while I asked Mme Lorange, the Read More …
Sébastien Le Prestre, Marquis de Vauban (1633-1707), was a French military engineer and adviser to King Louis XIV. What Kilroy was to the twentieth century, Vauban was to the seventeenth. Wherever you went in Western Europe, Vauban had already been there and had designed, built, strengthened — or conquered — Read More …
OK, I admit it. I chose this hotel because of the name. But it turned out to be a pleasant and convenient place to stay, so I can heartily recommend it even to those who are in Besançon for other reasons. The hotel is in one of the historic stone Read More …
More than a hundred meters above the old town of Besançon, Vauban’s Citadel covers eleven hectares on the top of Mont Saint-Etienne. Besançon was controlled by the Spanish until 1674, when it was besieged and conquered by a French army of about 70,000 men under Vauban’s direction. Under one of Read More …
This “Space of Vauban” is located in one of the buildings in the Citadel of Besançon. It currently consists of four exhibition rooms which “explore the life and times of Vauban and other important figures and places including Louis XIV, Versailles and Molière.” Some of the exhibits “retrace the two Read More …
For each of his citadels, Vauban designed a simple chapel so the soldiers could attend Sunday mass. The one in Besançon is dedicated to Saint Étienne (Saint Stephen), in memory of a church by that name that was demolished to make room for the citadel. Vauban himself was a practicing Read More …
Palais Granvelle is a sixteenth century Renaissance palace was built from 1534 and 1547 on the Grand Rue, the main street in the center of Besançon. At that time the Franche-Comté and Burgundy did not belong to France, but were ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (1500-1558). His Read More …
This fort is on a hill at the northwest end of Besançon, on the opposite side of the city from the Citadel. It was named after an Italian engineer and architect called Jean Griffoni, who built a small fort on this site in 1595. (So it was not named after Read More …