Vauban in the Roussillon

Sébastien Le Prestre, titled Marquis de Vauban, was a military engineer who served under King Louis the 14th.

Forteresse de Villefranche-de-conflent

He developed a revolutionary method for attacking castles, and at the same time brought to its summit the art of castle fortifications. Vauban’s buildings and ramparts, built either by him or according to his ideas, would eventually equip all the weak points along the French frontiers. Very much hands-on, as well as committing his principles to paper, he would inspect and survey in person all the sites, adapting his principles according to the lie of the land, then supervise both the planning and the work itself, which he would then modify if necessary. He personally participated in forty-eight different sieges.

His forteresses at Mont-Louis and at Villefranche-de-Conflent have recently been listed as UNESCO World Heritage sites.

MONT-LOUIS

Up in the Haut Conflent, the fortified town of Mont-Louis is an excellent example of bastille or fortified architecture. Within the walls, all is laid out in straight lines, streets meeting at right-angles, all converging on a central square that was used for military parades, fêtes and ceremonies. Close by, the local parish church and the governor’s residence illustrate the classical style that France’s conquest of the Roussillon brought to the area.

VILLEFRANCHE DE CONFLENT

The town of Villefranche-de-Conflent was built in a narrow defile, wedged between high cliffs on either side, and it commands the passage between the Haut Conflent and Cerdagne regions. Most of this fortified town is constructed from the pink marble found in the Conflent valley, including the two roman porches of the parish church, a 13th century bell-tower, a 12th century belfry, and numerous village houses.

BELLEGARDE

The Col du Perthus gives a direct link between France and Spain, and the Spaniards had built a castle nearby which the French had great difficulty in taking in 1674. Vauban visited the site on his second tour of the Roussillon in 1679, when he gave his approval to the plans proposed by Rousselot, another engineer, which involved enlarging the old Spanish fortification, and making several modifications to the existing structure ; the old dungeons were demolished, the interior courtyard was re-levelled, and the bastions were fortified by small towers that served as redoubts.

LA FORTERESSE DE SALSES

The finest example of « transition » military architecture can be found at Salses, a small village to the north of Roussillon.
Here, this rectangular fort, some 115 metres long by 90 metres wide and with a cylindrical tower at each of the 4 corners, was built by the Spanish in the 16th century. It is set some considerable distance into the ground so as to hide it from view and to render it more impregnable. Vauban, in fact, and paradoxically, actually had the defences of Salses reduced so as to render the castle easier to take, in case the Spaniards ever decided to take control over it again.