The French military engineer Vauban (1633-1707) who advised Louis XIV on protecting his country's borders was well-known for his skill in constructing what?
"Vauban, Freiburg Vauban is a neighbourhood to the south of the town centre in Freiburg, Germany. It was built as ""a sustainable model district"" on the site of a former French military base named after Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, the 17th century French Marshal who built fortifications in Freiburg while the region was under French rule. Construction began in 1998. In the year 2001 the first 2000 residents moved in. All houses are built to a low-energy consumption standard, with 100 units designed to the ""Passivhaus"" ultra-low energy building standard. Other buildings are heated by a combined heat and"
"architecture. The wars were so expensive, and so inconclusive, that although France gained some territory to the east, its enemies gained more strength than it did, Vauban, France's leading military strategist, warned that king in 1689 that a hostile ""Alliance"" was too powerful at sea. He recommended the best way for France to fight back was to license French merchants ships to privateer and seize enemy merchant ships, while avoiding its navies: Vauban was pessimistic about France's so-called friends and allies and recommended against expensive land wars, or hopeless naval wars: Louis XIV died in 1715 and was succeeded by"
"of Louis XIV, and his personality shaped his approach. Impelled ""by a mix of commerce, revenge, and pique"", Louis sensed that warfare was the ideal way to enhance his glory. In peacetime he concentrated on preparing for the next war. He taught his diplomats their job was to create tactical and strategic advantages for the French military. While his battlefield generals were not especially good, Louis XIV had excellent support staff. His chief engineer Vauban (1633–1707) perfected the arts of fortifying French towns and besieging enemy cities. The finance minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619–83) dramatically improved the financial system so that"
"by conquering new territory, but he was no longer willing to pursue an open-ended militarist policy of the kind he had undertaken in 1672, and instead relied upon France's clear military superiority to achieve specific strategic objectives along his borders. Proclaimed the 'Sun King', a more mature Louis – conscious he had failed to achieve decisive results against the Dutch – had turned from conquest to security, using threats rather than open war to intimidate his neighbours into submission. Louis XIV, along with his chief advisor Louvois, his foreign minister Colbert de Croissy, and his technical expert, Vauban, developed France's"
"Established on the border of Flanders, it was part of a double-line of fortified towns between Gravelines, Dunkirk and Maubeuge-Rocroi. It delineated the famous ""Pré Carré"" (""square field"") conceived by Vauban comprising 28 fortified cities. From Lille, Vauban supervised the construction of the many citadels and canals of the North, which controlled the border between France and Belgium. Lille was taken from Spain by French troops in August 1667, and Louis XIV immediately ordered the construction of a fortress. Louis Nicolas de Clerville and Vauban proposed plans. Vauban's were those chosen by the King. Work was started in 1668 under"
"Barrage Vauban The Barrage Vauban, or Vauban Dam, is a bridge, weir and defensive work erected in the 17th century on the River Ill in the city of Strasbourg in France. At that time, it was known as the Great Lock (""grande écluse""), although it does not function as a navigation lock in the modern sense of the word. Today it serves to display sculptures and has a viewing terrace on its roof, with views of the earlier ""Ponts Couverts"" bridges and Petite France quarter. It has been classified as a ""Monument historique"" since 1971. The barrage was constructed from"
"wars of religion across France, the commander of the Chateau D'If, who had remained loyal to Henry IV of France, had a meeting in the Tour Royale with the Duke de Guise, Governor of Provence, to agree on a way to drive the Spaniards from Marseille, which had declared itself an independent republic.' In 1634, Cardinal Richelieu decided to strengthen the harbor defenses and had a second fort, Fort Ballaguier, constructed opposite the Tour Royale. In 1679, Louis XIV sent his chief military architect, Vauban, to make the fortifications of Toulon strong enough to resist a British attack. Vauban described"
"borders in order to make them more defensible. Vauban made the radical suggestion of France giving up some land that was indefensible in order to create a stronger, less porous border with its neighbours. Vauban was born in Saint-Léger-de-Foucheret (renamed Saint-Léger-Vauban in his honour in 1867), in Burgundy France, into a family of minor nobility. At the age of ten, he was orphaned and left in very poor circumstances. He lived his boyhood and youth amongst the peasantry of his native place. After some time, he was put under the care of the Carmelite prior of Semur, who undertook his"
"both include buildings that the Spaniards erected. The Treaty of Nijmegen in 1678 gave the region of Franche-Comté to Louis XIV, who decided to improve significantly the city of Besançon's defences. In March 1668 Louis appointed the military architect Vauban to design the Citadel. The initial construction, which took place under the supervision of Ambrose Precipiano, took six years. Work continued over thirty years with the result that by 1711, the Citadel was one of the strongest fortifications of the period. The construction was so expensive that - so the story goes - the king asked Vauban if he was"
"Fort de la Conchée Fort de la Conchée is a fortification on the rocky island of Quincé, four kilometers north-west of St Malo, France. Constructed by Sebastien Vauban the fort covers almost the entire island. The fortress consists of a service building built on high, thick granite masonry walls two stories high. An oval upper terrace with embrasures facing the open sea served as the fort's site for the fort's battery. Today, the fort is a nature reserve for seabirds. In 1689 Vauban conducted an inspections of French coastal fortifications for King Louis XIV, who wished to strengthen and improve"
"This had originated in Italy in the 16th century. From the late 17th century the model system of fortification was considered to be that based on the bastion trace of Vauban, Louis XIV's military engineer. Carnot opposed the Bastion system. The elements of his system were: A conventional fort would have ramparts on which the cannon were mounted. The ramparts were surrounded by a ditch with vertical, or near vertical, sides, called the scarp (inner wall) and counterscarp (outer wall). The outer side of the ditch would have a glacis, a gently outwardly sloping earth bank at a slightly lower"
"Banks hoped to overrun the entrenchments quickly, then take his army northward to assist Grant at Vicksburg. Sieges and the assault of fortified positions are probably the most complex and demanding of military operations. The foremost authority on these matters in the civil war was considered to be the French engineer, the Marquis de Vauban, who designed many European fortification systems, and organized many successful sieges of the seventeenth century. The Confederate earthworks of Port Hudson, and their use of artillery lunettes show his influence, and corresponding attacks on such systems would have benefited from his theories. Rather than considering"
"well before the start of the Nine Years' War, Louis XIV had charged Vauban with inspecting the coast from Dunkirk to Bayonne. Of his first stay at Camaret, Vauban wrote in his memoir of 9 May 1685: Just after the war began and, having inspected the sites already, he decided first to set up a defensive position at Bertheaume and to build a ""tour de côte"" at Camaret, the unique example of its type. Vauban's first designs foresaw the building of a round tower, but once he arrived he decided to make it a polygonal tower. While work on the"
"construction. This massive masonry-construction fort was designed to repel a land-based attack by United States forces and was inspired by the designs of Louis XIV's commissary of fortifications Sébastien Le Prestre, Seigneur de Vauban – a star-shaped hillock citadel with internal courtyard and clear harbour view from armoured ramparts. Between 1820 and 1831 the British had constructed a similar albeit larger citadel in Quebec City known as the Citadel of Quebec. The soldiers at the Halifax Citadel were on alert when Nova Scotia became the site of two international incidents during the American Civil War: the Chesapeake Affair and the"
"the aristocracy. By these means he consolidated a system of absolute monarchical rule in France that endured until the French Revolution. However, Louis XIV's long reign saw France involved in many wars that drained its treasury. His reign began during the Thirty Years' War and during the Franco-Spanish war. His military architect, Vauban, became famous for his pentagonal fortresses, and Jean-Baptiste Colbert supported the royal spending as much as possible. French dominated League of the Rhine fought against the Ottoman Turks at the Battle of Saint Gotthard in 1664. The battle was won by the Christians, chiefly through the brave"
"under his command and noted that the baie de Douarnenez and above all Camaret would allow landings by large numbers of troops. He ordered them reinforced. Aiming to prevent any landings, and with no warships at his disposal, he equipped scores of chaloupes to defend the goulet and armed militias with weapons requisitioned by the navy. The cavalry regiments and dragoons were positioned at Landerneau and Quimper and, to enable the fast transmission of information, Vauban organised a communications code in the form of signals. In a letter to Louis XIV on 17 June 1694, he reported: The Anglo-Dutch fleet"
"had dominated military thinking since its introduction in 16th century Italy until the first decades of the 19th century. However, perhaps the greatest constructor of bastion forts, the French engineer Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, also devised an effective method to defeat them. Before Vauban, besiegers had driven a sap towards the enemy fort, until they reached the glacis, where artillery could be positioned to directly fire on the scarp wall, hoping to make a breach. Vauban's method was also to use saps, but using these to create three successive lines of entrenchments surrounding the fort, known as ""parallels"". The"
"in a huge programme of fortification which commenced in 1874 under the direction of General Raymond Adolphe Séré de Rivières. Polygonal forts typical of the Séré de Rivières system had guns protected by iron armour or revolving Mougin turrets. The vulnerable masonry of the accommodation casemates were built facing away from the enemy, protected overhead by large mounds of earth, 5.5 metres (18 feet) deep. The programme involved building ring fortresses around Paris and to guard potential border crossing points, often surrounding Vauban-era fortifications; however, the loss of Alsace and Lorraine to the Prussians created the need for a new"
"each other by cuts in the rock and linked by bridges. As a result, little remained of the medieval castle. A little later in 1684, on behalf of Louis XIV, Vauban succeeded in capturing the city of Luxembourg during a month-long siege under which the Bock fortifications were completely flattened. Thereafter Vauban, perhaps the most competent fortification engineer of his day, undertook major additions to the defences, realizing that underground passages and chambers were just as important as the surface installations. The Large Bock, connected to the old town by the Pont du Château, was further reinforced. Enclosed by a"
"d'Administration"", are both adjacent to the northern end of the barrage. The headquarters (""Hôtel du Département"") of the Bas-Rhin department is by the southern end. Barrage Vauban The Barrage Vauban, or Vauban Dam, is a bridge, weir and defensive work erected in the 17th century on the River Ill in the city of Strasbourg in France. At that time, it was known as the Great Lock (""grande écluse""), although it does not function as a navigation lock in the modern sense of the word. Today it serves to display sculptures and has a viewing terrace on its roof, with views"
"and shipyard were built in 1599, and small sheltered harbour, the Veille Darse, was built in 1604-1610 to protect ships from the wind and sea. The shipyard was greatly enlarged by Cardinal Richelieu, who wished to make France into a Mediterranean naval power. In 1680, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Secretary of State of the Navy and Controller of Finance of King Louis XIV, began building a much larger port, called the Darse Vauban or the Darse Neuve, and shipyard, designed by his commissioner of fortifications, Vauban. In 1697, Vauban built the impressive corderie, a building designed to make ropes. The corderie, still"
"almost infallable. Vauban himself devised three separate systems of fortification, each having a more elaborate system of outworks which were intended to prevent the besiegers from enfilading the bastions. Numerous other engineers followed during the next century, all attempting unsuccessfully to perfect the bastion system so as to nullify the Vauban-style of attack. Furthermore, as the 18th century progressed, it was found that the continuous enceinte, or main defensive enclosure of a bastion fortress, could not be made large enough to accommodate the enormous field armies which were increasingly being employed in Europe, neither could the defences be constructed far"
"The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle confirmed France's possession of new fortresses, which Vauban proceeded to improve or rebuild. He was still following the systems of preceding engineers. Colbert and Louvois were profoundly interested in the work. At Louvois' request, Vauban wrote his ""Mémoire pour servir à l'instruction dans la conduite des sièges"" (1669) (this, together with a memorandum on the defence of fortresses by another hand, was published at Leiden in 1740). On the renewal of war with the Netherlands, Vauban again conducted the most important sieges, (Rheinberg and Nijmegen 1672, Maastricht and Trier 1673, Besançon 1674). In the latter year"
"to that, from Dunkirk to Dinant, France controlled fifteen fortresses and forts, with thirteen more in second line. Most of these had been rebuilt by Vauban. Further acquisitions, notably Strasbourg (1681), required him to undertake unceasing work. The Barrage Vauban and other forts can still be seen today. Vauban designed his ""first system"" of fortification beginning at Saarlouis, which remained the accepted standard until comparatively recent times. He retained what was valuable from his predecessors and he is believed to have surpassed them in his practice rather than in theory. In 1682 he began to use his ""second system"", which"
"in diameter, had been built by Marshal Sébastien de Vauban in the seventeenth century. Forts de Boussois, des Sarts, de Leveau, d'Hautmont, du Bourdiau and Fort de Cerfontaine were built about beyond the city walls, on a circumference of about . The forts were pre-1885 masonry types except for du Bourdiau, which had a concrete shell, capable of resisting some modern heavy artillery. The masonry forts had a covering of earth thick, except for Le Sarts, which had a clay layer only thick; the forts made prominent landmarks. ""Ouvrages"" (fortified infantry shelters) had been built in the wide gaps between"
"the service of Louis XIV. Vauban died in 1707 and this, his last work, was completed by Louis de Cormontaigne. The city's layout was that of an 'ideal city', as was popular at the time, with a regular square grid street pattern inside an octagonal fortification. Generous space was given to a central square across the four blocks at the middle, flanked by an impressive church. Individual blocks were offered for private development, either as affluent houses in private gardens, or as properties for commercial rent. Simpler housing was provided in long tenement blocks, built inside each curtain wall, which"
"Louis XIV of France ""to install cannons on the small island of Bertheaume near the port of Trehire on the ruins of the castle of the former Dukes of Brittany"". Vauban, attempting to enhance the defense of Brest, established a battery in 1689 to repel potential English attack. The battery proved its worth during the Anglo-Dutch attack on Camaret-sur-Mer and the Tour Vauban on 17 June 1694. At the time the battery was armed with only three cannons and two mortars. Even so, it was able to fire on the British. On 28 September 1694 Vauban decided to start building"
"also had the effect of shielding the better houses from the risk of cannon fire. Access was provided by large gateways in the principal four curtain walls. The fortifications are Vauban's final work and the culmination of his 'Third System'. There are two lines of defence, an inner ""enceinte de sûreté"", the bastion wall around the city, and an outer ""enceinte de combat"", a system of concentric star-shaped earthworks. The curtain wall was largely octagonal, with each flank separated roughly into three and the outer bastion projecting slightly, so as to flank the centre of the walls. Each corner had"
"after the Fort : ""Fort Mahon Place"". The fort is open to visitors every Sunday from April to November. There are two exhibition rooms with orientation plaques throughout the buildings. The viewing platform at the top of the tower has an interpretation board that explains the view across the Straits of Dover. Fort Mahon Fort Mahon (' or Fort Vauban""""') is a sea fort by the commune of Ambleteuse in the Pas-de-Calais, northern France. The fort was built at the end of the 17th century by the military architect Vauban on the orders of Louis XIV to defend the port"
"to get from one gate to the other. These monumental gates still exist today, but as for the fortifications there remain only the vestiges of three bartizans and a staircase in the form of a tower in the Jardin des Dauphins. These works on the two branches of fortifications were completed in July 1619. A century after the construction of the Bastille, the military architect Vauban, during his first inspection of the fortifications of the Alps in September 1692, alerted the king, Louis XIV, to the weaknesses of the defences of Grenoble. In his report, he described them as ""weak,"
"Pointe du Grand Gouin The pointe du Grand Gouin is a rocky promontory with vertical cliffs to the west of the inlet of Camaret-sur-Mer in France. It protects a port which, in Vauban's era, was vulnerable to possible landings. It is divided into the Grand Gouin (the top of the cliff) and the Petit Gouin (mid-cliff). In 1693, Vauban began to organise the defences of Brest with batteries and fortifications all along the Camaret bay, from the pointe du Gouin to the Quélern lines (Louis XIV of France had been warned of an Anglo-Dutch attack in the area, but did"
"it, the first permanent bridge had been erected in 1338. In 1678, Strasbourg was taken over by France, and the bridge became part of the city's defense system. Louis XIV ordered the construction of the fortress by the famous architect, Sébastien Le Préstre de Vauban (1679–81), resulting in the construction of the star-shaped fortresses and bridgeheads in both locations. The principal fortresses lay on the west side (French side) of the Rhine; the bridgeheads and the smaller fortifications surrounding those lay on the west side; these protected the various bridges, barrages and viaducts connecting the east and west sides of"
"from the defenders, who also had a double line of palisades at the top of the slope. A contemporary journal called Vauban's creation a ""perfect model of the Art"". The French engineer himself had given some thought to the matter of besieging the fort ever since he had designed it. The commander of the siege force, Marshal Nicolas Catinat and his chief engineer Marshal Vauban had a strong working relationship and would cooperate seamlessly during the siege. Catinat had 50 battalions and as many squadrons of cavalry, some 40,000 men in total. Vauban was assisted by Jean de Mesgrigny and"