The Fortifications of Vauban is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that includes 12 groups of fortified buildings and locations along France’s borders. These structures were designed by military architect Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban (1633–1707) during the rule of King Louis XIV. The sites include different types of fortifications, such as citadels, mountain batteries, sea fortifications, bastion walls, and towers. Additionally, the site includes cities that Vauban planned from the beginning and communication towers. These locations were chosen because they show examples of Vauban’s work and demonstrate how his designs influenced both military and civilian engineering worldwide from the 17th to the 20th century.
The network of major Vauban sites is a group of cities formed on March 30, 2005, at the request of the city of Besançon. It includes the 12 sites that best represent Vauban’s fortification system. The application file was chosen on January 5, 2007, by the Ministry of Culture to represent France. On July 7, 2008, 12 of the network’s 14 sites were added to the UNESCO list during the annual meeting in Quebec City.
History of UNESCO nomination
In 2003, the city of Besançon studied the possibility of nominating its sites for UNESCO World Heritage status. After consulting experts, the city decided to submit an application that highlighted the complete work of the architect Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, to meet UNESCO's requirements. In 2005, eight sites were chosen as an initial selection, and by 2006, a final list of fourteen sites was created from the 150 fortifications built by Vauban. This list was approved by a scientific council on 31 March 2006. (At the same time, each country could only submit one nomination file each year, competing with the potential UNESCO nomination of works by Le Corbusier.)
The Vauban network was officially chosen on 5 January 2007 by the Ministry of Culture, as celebrations began for the 300th anniversary of Vauban’s death.
On 7 July 2008, twelve of the fourteen sites were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. The sites of Bazoches Castle in Nièvre and the transformed fort at Belle-Île-en-Mer in Morbihan were not included. The citadel at Belle-Île-en-Mer was rejected by UNESCO because of its "lack of authenticity," especially due to a hotel project inside the site. While this raised questions, the fact that these two sites were private properties did not influence the decision.
The twelve sites
There are twelve sites in total, surrounding most of present-day France.
The Vauban Citadel, located in Arras, Pas-de-Calais, was built by Vauban from 1667 to 1672. The Citadel is called "La belle inutile" (the beautiful useless one) by residents because it was never directly involved in heavy fighting and failed to stop the Germans from occupying the city during both World Wars. Inside the citadel, on the side of La Place de Manœuvre, there is a small Baroque-style chapel. Outside, Le Mur des Fusillés (the wall of the people executed by a firing squad) honors the 218 members of the French Resistance who were shot in the citadel’s ditch during World War II.
The Citadel of Besançon, in Besançon, Doubs, is considered one of Vauban’s finest works of military architecture. The Citadel covers 11 hectares (27 acres) on Mount Saint-Etienne, one of the seven hills that protect Besançon, the capital of Franche-Comté. Mount Saint-Etienne is located at the neck of an oxbow formed by the river Doubs, giving the site a strategic importance that Julius Caesar recognized as early as 58 BC. The Citadel was built between 1668 and 1683 and overlooks the old quarter of the city and the oxbow bend. Vauban visited Besançon 17 times between 1674 and 1703 to supervise the work. The Citadel is built on a large syncline on a rectangular field crossed by three successive bastions (enclosures or fronts) behind which three plazas extend. The entire town is surrounded by walls covered with circular paths and marked by watchtowers and sentry posts. The walls are up to 15 to 20 meters (49 to 66 feet) high and have a thickness of 5 to 6 meters (16 to 20 feet). This site also includes Fort Griffon, built between 1680 and 1684.
The citadel of Blaye, city walls, Fort Paté, and Fort Médoc are located in Blaye-Cussac-Fort-Médoc, Gironde. The citadel at Blaye was built between 1686 and 1689, and the neighboring Fort Paté and Fort Médoc were built from 1689 to 1700. The placement of these three sites across the Gironde estuary helped protect Bordeaux from a possible sea invasion.
This site, located in Briançon, Hautes-Alpes, includes a town wall, four forts (including Fort des Trois-Têtes and Fort du Randouillet), the Redoute des Salettes, the ouvrage de la communication Y, and the Asfeld Bridge. The medieval town wall was rebuilt by Vauban between 1692 and 1700. The forts were built according to his plans between 1709 and 1732. The communications tower was built between 1724 and 1734, and the Asfeld Bridge was built between 1729 and 1731.
The Tour Vauban, also called the Tour dorée (the Gilded Tower), is in Camaret-sur-Mer, Finistère. It is an 18-meter-high polygonal defensive tower built from 1693 to 1695 using a plan by Vauban on the Sillon at Camaret-sur-Mer, as part of the fortifications of the goulet de Brest. It has three levels and is flanked by walls, a guardhouse, and a gun battery that can hold 11 cannons. A cannonball foundry was added during the French Revolution period.
The ville neuve (new city) is located in Longwy, Meurthe-et-Moselle. The entire new town was designed and built by Vauban starting in 1679. It has a hexagonal shape with a regular layout surrounding a square parade ground and flanked by bastions. Although the town was mostly destroyed due to repeated sieges, many elements of the military architecture remain, including defenses that performed well as late as 1914.
The site of the place forte is located in Mont-Dauphin, Hautes-Alpes. Built in 1692 by Vauban on the head of a plateau, it follows an orthogonal plan and contains various military buildings dating from the 16th through 18th centuries.
The citadel and city walls of Mont-Louis are located in Mont-Louis, Pyrénées-Orientales. They were built in 1679 to facilitate trans-border crossings with Spain and include a square citadel and fortified town walls with 25 sentry posts.
The ville neuve in Neuf-Brisach, Haut-Rhin, is located near the German border with France. Built from scratch between 1698 and 1703, it is one of Vauban’s last works, intended to guard the border with Germany (then the Holy Roman Empire). It is the only example of Vauban’s “third fortified system,” with a double town wall.
A Citadel and city walls designed by Vauban between 1681 and 1685 are located in Saint-Martin-de-Ré, Charente-Maritime. The citadel, surrounded by six bastions and a dry moat, was built in only 40 days.
Two watchtowers designed by Vauban and his student are located in the commune of Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue, Manche. They face each other across Saint-Vaast Bay, with the taller, two-story watchtower on the island of Tatihou. Built in 1694, the watchtowers have a truncated-conical shape and are surrounded by bastion forts holding chapels, barracks, and powder magazines.
Fort Libéria, Cova Bastera, and